WTT Star Contender Chennai begins with qualifier rounds, record 19 Indians in main draw

The WTT Star Contender Chennai 2025 got off to an exciting start on Tuesday (March 25) after being inaugurated by Udhayanidhi Stalin, Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.

A record 158 players from 20 countries will compete for a prize purse of USD 275,000 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium.

A total of 19 Indian players have made it to the main draw which begins on March 27 and is preceded by the qualifiers on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Several promising Indian players were in action at the qualifiers on the opening day of the tournament.

Divyanshi Bhowmick of Mumbai outplayed Srijanee Dey 11-5, 4-11, 11-4, 11-5 in the second round of the women's singles qualifiers. Kavya Bhatt defeated Aditi Chodankar 11-9, 11-6, 11-4, also in Round 2.

Nagpur girl Jennifer Varghese went down to Neha Kumari 4-11, 8-11, 1-11. Radhapriya Goel, who hails from Gujarat, beat Yashini Sivasankar of Tamil Nadu in a grueling 11-7, 11-5, 8-11, 6-11, 11-6 contest.

Suresh Preyesh of Tamil Nadu, who has made a splash at an early age, went down to Carlo Rossi of Italy 2-11, 3-11, 14-16 in Round 2 of the men's singles qualifiers.

The 19-year-old had earlier defeated India's Mohammed Ali 11-7, 11-7, 10-12, 12-10 at the Chennai event.

Sharath Kamal's last hurrah headlines WTT Star Contender Chennai 2025

Sharath Kamal on Commonwealth Games podium: - Source: Getty

Sharath Kamal, who announced his retirement earlier this month, will be playing his last tournament at the ongoing WTT Star Contender Chennai 2025.

The 42-year-old, who began his table tennis journey in his hometown Chennai, decided, aptly, to end his illustrious career in the city.

Manush Shah and Manav Thakkar, who made history by becoming the first-ever Indian men's doubles pair to advance to the semifinals of a WTT Star Contender in Doha, go into the Chennai event as the top seeds.

Players to watch out for in the star-studded event include current World No. 3 in men's singles Tomokazu Harimoto and Olympic women's singles medalist Hina Hayata, both from Japan.

India's Sreeja Akula, who took the lead twice against World No. 1 Sun Yingsha in the Paris Olympics before bowing out in the Round of 16, will be pairing up with Swastika Ghosh in the women's doubles event.

The Commonwealth Games mixed doubles gold medalist (with Sharath Kamal) will partner Sathiyan Gnanasekaran in mixed doubles in Chennai while also being a force to reckon with in women's singles.

Ayhika Mukherjee of India, who has been a giant killer (beating Sun Yinghsha in the ITTF World Team Championships last year), will be hoping to come good in Chennai.

Ayhika, a Hangzhou Asian Games bronze medalist alongside Sutirtha Mukherjee, is seeded sixth in the WTT Star Contender Chennai.