CHENNAI: India’s Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade claimed the mixed doubles runners-up medal after they went down in the final against Romanian second seeds Eduard Ionescu and Bernadette Szocs in the WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026, co-hosted by Ultimate Table Tennis, Sharath Kamal Academy, at the Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University here on Sunday.
Czechia’s Lubomir Jancarik and Japan’s Satsuki Odo registered contrasting wins to clinch the men’s and women’s singles titles respectively.
In the only final with Indian interest, fourth seeds Desai and Ghorpade put up a strong fight against second seeds from Romania but ended up on the wrong side of the 3-0 (11-9, 11-2, 11-8) scoreline.
Later in the evening, 38-year-old Jancarik, the oldest player in men’s singles, capped off his dream run in the competition with a 4-2 (11-8, 9-11, 11-7, 11-9, 9-11, 11-8) win over French fifth seed Thibault Poret in the men’s singles final. By winning the event, Jancarik also became the first Czechia player to win the Star Contender title.
In the women’s singles final, top seed Odo defeated compatriot Miu Hirano 4-0 (11-2, 11-7, 13-11, 11-5) to win the title.