3 min readUpdated: Feb 12, 2026 11:57 PM IST
Talented youngster Ankur Bhattacharjee has started the new year with a giant stride, taking out French World Championships 2025 medallist in doubles, Florian Bourrassaud at Chennai’s WTT Star Contender at the Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University on Thursday.
Having come through the qualifier, Ankur defeated the surprise French medallist who won bronze with Esteban Dorr at Doha Worlds. Ankur will face 14th seed Kazuhiro Yoshimura of Japan in the second round.
Ankur had qualified for the China Smash five months ago, defeating fancied Lam Siu Hang from two games down for a stunning 8-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-6 win. He also made finals of U19 Euro Youth Smash in 2025, coming all the way from qualifiers. The Chennai win is another step forward for the standout talent.
In other games, Muscat title winners and India’s top mixed doubles combination of Manush Shah and Diya Chitale advanced in the WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026, co-hosted by Ultimate Table Tennis, Sharath Kamal Academy, and Stupa Sports AI.
Manush and Diya, were pushed to the brink by the Korean qualifiers as they saved three match points before the home favourites emerged victorious 3-2 (10-12, 11-6, 12-10, 5-11, 12-10) in 42 minutes to reach the quarterfinals.
Ankur also advanced to the mixed doubles quarterfinals alongside Swastika Ghosh after they defeated the Korean combination of Park Gyuhyeon and Kim Nayeong 3-2 (11-9, 3-11, 11-8, 6-11, 11-9). They will now face fourth seeds Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade, who defeated Darius Movileanu and Andrea Dragoman of Romania 3-0 (11-8, 11-4, 11-7).
In the other quarterfinals, Manush and Diya will face Indian wild cards Payas Jain and Syndrela Das, who defeated Kazakhstan’s Iskender Kharki and Sarvinoz Mirkadirova 11-8, 11-6, 11-7 in their first round clash.
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Among the other results, Snehit Suravajjula fought back from a 1-2 deficit to beat Divyansh Srivastava 3-2 (9-11, 11-8, 6-11, 11-7, 11-6) to set up a second round clash against Japanese 13th seed Mizuki Oikawa.
Harmeet also advanced to the second round with a convincing 3-1 (11-8, 12-10, 9-11, 11-8) over Iulian Chirita of Romania.
In the women’s singles Round of 64 clash, 15-year-old Divyanshi Bhowmick put up a good fight against WTT Feeder Series Vadodara 2026 winner Ryu Hanna of Korea but ended up on the wrong end of a 3-1 (6-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-5) scoreline.
Later in the day, Diya defeated wild card Anusha Kutumbale 3-0 (11-8, 12-10, 11-8) to advance to the second round.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
