WTT Star Contender Chennai-2026 (10 - 15 February 2026)

[GAOdp]

WTT Star Contender Chennai-2026 is the third table tennis tournament of the WTT Contender Series in 2026 (and the second event at the WTT Star Contenders level in 2026), held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, located at Raja Muthiah Rd, Periamet, Kannappar Thidal, Poongavanapuram, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600003, India.
WTT Star Contender Chennai-2026 is organised by the Table Tennis Federation Of India under the auspices of World Table Tennis (WTT) and takes place from 10 to 15 February 2026. The total prize money for the tournament amounts to $300,000.

Qualification for the tournament
Restrictions on the participation of players of the world Top 20
Singles

• A maximum of six (8) players will be allowed to participate as long as the players are ranked in the top 20 ITTF TTWR players as of the entry deadline.

National Entry Restriction (NER)
Singles

• Each Member Association may be allowed a maximum of six (6) players per category, excluding the WTT category. The limit applies to both the main draw and the qualifying competition to ensure a maximum of six (6) players in any combination (i.e. 4 qualifiers / 2 main draws or 1 qualifier / 5 main draws).

Doubles

• Each Member Association may be permitted to participate in a maximum of eight (8) players per category, with a maximum of three (3) full pairs consisting of players from the same Member Association (i.e. for example 3 Czech/Czech, 1 Czech/Swedish, 1 Czech/German).

Mixed doubles

• Each Member Association shall be permitted a maximum of four (4) players per rank in any pairing combination.

The organizer is permitted to use their wildcards to enter additional players from any member association and/or pairs in any combination beyond the NER limit.

Wildcards

• The Promoter is entitled to the following Wildcards: four (4) players in the Singles Main Draw and two (2) Pairs in the Doubles and Mixed Doubles Main Draw.
• The Organizer is entitled to the following Wildcards: eight (8) players for the qualifying draw for singles and two (2) pairs for doubles.
• Any unused Wildcards/nominations will be returned to direct entries.

Useful links

Tournament page on the WTT website: WTT Star Contender Chennai-2026
Tournament playlist on the World Table Tennis YouTube channel: WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026

 

[zeio]

WD R16
Ryu Hanna/KNY (1) 3-2 A. Mukherjee/S. Mukherjee (4, -3, -6, 6, 8)
It's been a while since SYB played WD, especially with Ryu Hanna last at WTTC 2025.

 

[andymagata]

WTT ranking systems really sucks! Big time! Looking at the doubles, the best pairs (on paper) are all playing each other early in the tournament...and singles are not that much better...for example Joo and Thakkar are already out! They could have won it all!

 

[FIXPOINT]

WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026 QLF WS R3

WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026 QLF MS R3

WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026 QLF WD R1

WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026 QLF MD R1

WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026 QLF XD R1

​

 

[NextLevel]

WTT ranking systems really sucks! Big time! Looking at the doubles, the best pairs (on paper) are all playing each other early in the tournament...and singles are not that much better...for example Joo and Thakkar are already out! They could have won it all!

Not sure where you got this from, they are both still in the tournament in singles and were seeded out of the first round. XD teams are hard to seed especially if you don't seed deeply. Unless you play XD often, it's hard to have a good seeding.

 

[FIXPOINT]

WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026 WS R32

WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026 MS R32

WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026 WD SF

WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026 MD SF

WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026 XD QF

​

 

[zeio]

WS R32
Kihara (5) 0-3 Huang Yu-Jie (-9, -5, -9)
Shibata (12) 3-0 Ryu Hanna (WC) (9, 13, 11)
Kim Seongjin (16) 2-3 Dragoman (-9, 8, 8, -7, -7)

MS R32
Snehit Suravajjula 3-2 Oikawa (13) (-9, -15, 4, 6, 16)
Poor Oikawa.

CDS (9) 0-3 Elias Ranefur (-10, -1, -3)

It's not the water, it's not the water, it's not the water, but there must be something in the water...

XD QF
Akash Pal/Kaushani Nath (WC) 2-3 OJS/Nagasaki (3) (9, -7, -12, 6, -7)

WS R32
Samara (9) 3-0 Wan Yuan (8, 8, 7)
Ghosh 1-3 JCH (3) (-2, -3, 9, -7)
G4 73, 76 TO for Ghosh after serving into the net, 711

MS R32
John Oyebode 3-0 Karlsson (6) (8, 9, 9)

WS R32
Hirano (15) 3-0 Omoda (WC) (6, 15, 7)
G2 35, 75, 77, 97, 910, 1110, 1112, 1213, 1314, 1415 TO for Omoda, 1715. 5 game points wasted for Omoda.
G3 47, 117

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

WS R32
Kihara (5) 0-3 Huang Yu-Jie (-9, -5, -9)
Shibata (12) 3-0 Ryu Hanna (WC) (9, 13, 11)
Kim Seongjin (16) 2-3 Dragoman (-9, 8, 8, -7, -7)

Still a ways away, but not a good start for Kihara, zeio

Harimoto, Nagasaki and Kihara for LA28!

WS R16
CY 3-1 Hayata (4, -8, 4, 4)
Hashimoto 2-3 SYB (-6, 6, 8, -7, -7)

 

[zeio]

MS R32
LJH 1-3 Gnanasekaran (10) (-7, 9, -9, -11)
The current LJH is like the then WCT several years back, focusing more or less entirely on XD.

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/fo...smash-2025-las-vegas-7-3-13.34068/post-531151

XD SF
LYJ/CIC 2-3 LJH/SYB (2) (8, 7, -9, -12, -7)
LJH stays true to his word after the XD bronze at Paris 2024, that fortunately he could keep playing XD with SYB. He really doesn't care about MS anymore. LOL

 

[zeio]

Still a ways away, but not a good start for Kihara, zeio

JTTA seems to align with my projection and it shows in the Zennihon Takkyu 2026 final ranking. Hashimoto is stuck in the vicious circle, again as projected. "Getting on JTTA's good side" (recommendation) is a necessity if you can't get through your teammates at home or get/stay high enough in WR abroad.

https://jtta.s3.ap-northeast-1.amaz.../2026/02/04135909/2026alljapan_SD_ranking.pdf
WS
1st Harimoto
2nd Hayata
3rd Yokoi
4th Kihara
5th Odo
6th Nagasaki
7th Sato
8th Shibata
11th Ito
15th Hirano (note that she is above Hashimoto)
16th Hashimoto

WD
1st Harimoto/Nagasaki
2nd Hirano/Kihara
4th Odo/Yokoi
5th Sato/Shibata

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Miyu Nagasaki showed a lot of progress easily beating WYD at the Asian Cup making a strong case for LA2028 doing well at both the Asian Cup and in doubles at the All Japan. She is probably the favorite to come out of the bottom half, but the winner of KNY vs. Yokoi is a very strong contender. I liked what I saw from KNY even in her loss to SYS at the Asian Cup. And Sakura Yokoi looked really good even in her close loss to Miwa at the All Japan. Satsuki Odo is mostly likely going to be coming out of the top half, but I think the eventual winner will come from the bottom half with Nagasaki/Yokoi/KNY/JCH.

 

[NextLevel]

JTTA seems to align with my projection and it shows in the Zennihon Takkyu 2026 final ranking. Hashimoto is stuck in the vicious circle, again as projected. "Getting on JTTA's good side" (recommendation) is a necessity if you can't get through your teammates at home or get/stay high enough in WR abroad.

https://jtta.s3.ap-northeast-1.amaz.../2026/02/04135909/2026alljapan_SD_ranking.pdf
WS
1st Harimoto
2nd Hayata
3rd Yokoi
4th Kihara
5th Odo
6th Nagasaki
7th Sato
8th Shibata
11th Ito
15th Hirano (note that she is above Hashimoto)
16th Hashimoto

WD
1st Harimoto/Nagasaki
2nd Hirano/Kihara
4th Odo/Yokoi
5th Sato/Shibata

Those rankings are clearly just based on the match scores of the loss in the tournament. I believe Hashimoto lost worse to Odo than Hirano to Sato. Don't believe it is a commentary on anything other than that.

 

[NextLevel]

Still a ways away, but not a good start for Kihara, zeio

That was pretty weird to be honest. Didn't see the match but not sure whether it is the venue or something about playing styles, some of the results are mindboggling.

 

[zeio]

Those rankings are clearly just based on the match scores of the loss in the tournament. I believe Hashimoto lost worse to Odo than Hirano to Sato. Don't believe it is a commentary on anything other than that.

From past experience, those rankings will likely be used to seed the upcoming selection trial for WTTC 2026 and those rankings will have a bearing on the 3 spots by recommendation.

 

[NextLevel]

From past experience, those rankings will likely be used to seed the upcoming selection trial for WTTC 2026 and those rankings will have a bearing on the 3 spots by recommendation.

Understood. Just saying that there is nothing political about it. It is just the outcome of the tournament based on rules for ranking the players.

 

[KiwiPong]

That was pretty weird to be honest. Didn't see the match but not sure whether it is the venue or something about playing styles, some of the results are mindboggling.

I saw most of that match. Kihara seemed to be very impatient and she wanted to play fast and end the point early or something. Unsure why that was.

 

[zeio]

Understood. Just saying that there is nothing political about it. It is just the outcome of the tournament based on rules for ranking the players.

Oh, Miki House would be the first to disagree. Zennihon Takkyu carries a lot of weight in Japan (in terms of dan, it's just below OG/10-dan, WTTC/9-dan and AG/ATTC/8-dan), comparable to the national games in China.

 

[zeio]

I saw most of that match. Kihara seemed to be very impatient and she wanted to play fast and end the point early or something. Unsure why that was.

5ch users are confused as well. Well, Kihara somehow got a WTT nomination for SGP GS 2026.

スレ立てるほどでもない大会・海外卓球　女子299
https://itest.5ch.net/mao/test/read.cgi/pingpong/1768952754/l-
0562 名無しＱ(･∀･)ﾉ゜ｻｧﾝ!! 2026/02/13(金) 17:09:54.83
見てないけど木原元気だったのかなぁ？
木原もいつものコーチも「チェンナイ行ってきます！」みたいなツイが無かったのが気になる
ドーハの時はあった
この大会どんなモチベだったのか？
(I didn't watch it, but I wonder if Kihara was OK?
I'm curious why neither Kihara nor her usual coach tweeted anything like "I'm off to Chennai!"
They did it for Doha
What was their motivation for this tournament?)

0574 名無しＱ(･∀･)ﾉ゜ｻｧﾝ!! 2026/02/13(金) 19:43:32.42
木原も長崎もチェンナイ→選考会→スマッシュか
(Both Kihara and Nagasaki going to Chennai → Selection trial → Smash)

https://www.facebook.com/sgtabletennisassociation/posts/wildcards-out/1489542763180953/

Singapore Table Tennis Association

Wildcards out!

www.facebook.com

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

JTTA seems to align with my projection and it shows in the Zennihon Takkyu 2026 final ranking. Hashimoto is stuck in the vicious circle, again as projected. "Getting on JTTA's good side" (recommendation) is a necessity if you can't get through your teammates at home or get/stay high enough in WR abroad.

https://jtta.s3.ap-northeast-1.amaz.../2026/02/04135909/2026alljapan_SD_ranking.pdf
WS
1st Harimoto
2nd Hayata
3rd Yokoi
4th Kihara
5th Odo
6th Nagasaki
7th Sato
8th Shibata
11th Ito
15th Hirano (note that she is above Hashimoto)
16th Hashimoto

WD
1st Harimoto/Nagasaki
2nd Hirano/Kihara
4th Odo/Yokoi
5th Sato/Shibata

Interesting that you're using the final standings of the All Japan as a proxy for JTTA's internal ranking being in alignment with your projections. And even at that, you are using the 4th (Kihara) and 6th (Nagasaki) positions in singles ignoring the 2nd (Hayata) and 3rd (Yokoi) positions. And since you're using the All Japan results, Hayata beat Kihara yet again at an All Japan. Hina also has the distinction of being the only Japanese woman having a winning record vs. Miwa in 2025 as well as overall at WTT tournaments. Having said that, no doubt Kihara and Nagasaki will be in contention for LA2028 in addition to a number of other top players.

I also see you made it a point to note that Hirano is above Hashimoto. I mean they both fell in the same round, R16. And Hirano's world ranking has fallen off a cliff at WR#65 to Hashimoto's WR#11. I believe Miu Hirano is a much better player than her ranking would suggest, but there are currently 11 Japanese women ranked higher than her so she has a ton of work to do.

 

[KiwiPong]

Hurricane Hirano!