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

[pongfugrasshopper]

A great win for Miu. Miyu was up 9-7 in the decider and lost 4 straight.

 

[NextLevel]

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.

Well Miu 1 beat Miyu 2 and Miyuu 3 has already been eliminated. So I guess we will have to wait patiently for the Miyu(u)s to be given a fair chance to represent Japan since they have been discriminated against (as opposed to losing to people at a higher clip than the teammates that qualify ahead of them).

 

[zeio]

WS R16
Hirano (15) 3-2 Nagasaki (2) (-8, 10, 9, -4, 9)
G5 01, 31 TO for Nagasaki, 33, 53, 54, 64, 65, 75, 78 TO for Hirano, 79, 119
Nagasaki shook hands with the ump before Hirano. First time to see.
Will Nagasaki beat Hirano ever overseas?

Huang Yu-Jie 1-3 LEH (11) (6, -9, -8, -13)

 

[NextLevel]

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.

The narrative is just a typical concoction. We are led to believe that Harimoto, Hirano and Hayata were not the best performing players in Japan which limited the Olympics qualifications to just internal matches for the very reason that world ranking was hard to make fair, and that it was a matter of favoritism and not the performance of Nagasaki and Kihara that led to their missing the Olympics. Of course, given that the last cycle was deemed problematic (of course, the preference is for a more unfair system with really selected favorites that even China has moved away from), the new system is already been deemed to produce players that it is clearly not producing. In fact the top two player are still clearly Harimoto and Hayata, and while that may change, Harimoto is a lock, it is all about which two join her.

 

[driversbeat]

Peng Yu-Han beats Samara to make quarterfinals. Looks like she's playing a much more active version of Ayhika Mukherjee's style with anti and short pips.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Very impressive 3-0 victory for Sakura over KNY. Not only her patented BH, but her forehand has gotten so much better this past year.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

 

[KiwiPong]

View attachment 40369

Probably like Kihara just wanted to get out of India to go to Singapore asap

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Probably like Kihara just wanted to get out of India to go to Singapore asap

Kihara and Nagasaki have a better excuse ... They have the trials for WTTTC on Feb 16-17. Singapore Smash Main Draw doesn't start until Feb 22.

 

[KiwiPong]

Kihara and Nagasaki have a better excuse ... They have the trials for WTTTC on Feb 16-17. Singapore Smash Main Draw doesn't start until Feb 22.

Where is this trial out at?

 

[NextLevel]

Kihara and Nagasaki have a better excuse ... They have the trials for WTTTC on Feb 16-17. Singapore Smash Main Draw doesn't start until Feb 22.

Miu Hirano decided to wait though... but at least, if she does well here, we may be reminded of her ability to handle pressure since she is a chosen one...

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Where is this trial out at?

It will be held in Habakino, Japan

2026年世界卓球選手権ロンドン大会（団体戦）男女日本代表国内選考会

選考基準：詳細PDF 出場選手　(2026年2月12日現在) 出場選手名簿：PDF

jtta.or.jp

 

[zeio]

Fallen seeds after WS R16
Nagasaki (2)/R16 2-3 Hirano (15) (8, -10, -9, 4, -9)
JCH (3)/R16 1-3 Dragoman (-5, 4, -8, -6)
Kihara (5)/R32 0-3 Huang Yu-Jie (-9, -5, -9)
Szocs (7)/R32 0-3 Peng Yu-Han (-9, -8, -13)
KNY (8)/R16 0-3 Yokoi (10) (-9, -9, -8)
Samara (9)/R16 2-3 Peng Yu-Han (8, 10, -6, -7, -7)
Shibata (12)/R16 1-3 Sato (6) (-10, 9, -9, -10)
Hursey (13)/R16 1-3 Odo (1) (8, -9, -4, -1)
Jee Minhyung (14)/R32 2-3 Nithya Mani (Q) (10, -10, 8, -7, -7)

 

[zeio]

XD SF
OJS/Nagasaki (3) 1-3 INJ E. Ionescu/Szocs (2) (-6, 6, -9, 0)
OJS injured himself after failing to reach for that wide FH at 9:10 of G3.

LIVE! | T1 | Day 3 | WTT Star Contender Chennai 2026 | Session 1
https://youtu.be/UkYviSmVNoA?t=11063

 

[joshmak10]

Looks to me Oh might have twisted his ankle badly reaching for that FH. He has already withdrawn from his remaining events. Hopefully he is ok, he stayed down for quite a bit of time

 

[Janard]

Hirano beating LEH 3-0 was surprising. Let's see how well she does against her nemesis Yokoi tomorrow.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Congratulations to Yokoi/Aoki for taking the WD title. Sakura Yokoi is still in the SF of WS going up against compatriot, Miu Hirano, tomorrow.

 

[zeio]

WS QF
LEH (11) 0-3 Hirano (15) (-3, -7, -8)
LEH jogs along with her trait, beating Ishikawa (1) at Hong Kong Open 2018, Hirano (8) at ATTC 2024, CIC (11) at SGP GS 2025/CIC (12) again at EUR GS 2025 and Hayata (1) at WTT SCT Muscat 2025 when she was the underdog by seeding (unseeded/unseeded [well, everyone was a seeded player]/unseeded for both/15, respectively) but much less the other way....

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/fo...orld-cup-macao-2025-4-14-20.35712/post-519017

Lee Eunhye is such an interesting player, to lose when she is supposed to win, and to win when she is supposed to lose...

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/fo...orld-cup-macao-2025-4-14-20.35712/post-519026

Apparently it's too complex for you to process. For all the complaints you have about the ITTF WR not being accurate. It's been 3 consecutive upsets between these 2 across 3 years. What this means is that the ITTF WR is not the problem, it's either/both of these 2 that is/are not consistent.

World Cup 2025
WR47 LEH 1-3 WR51 Winter

WTT CT Rio de Janeiro 2024
WR40 LEH 2-3 WR61 Winter

WTT FEE Vila Nova de Gaia 2023
WR81 LEH 3-1 WR56 Winter

4 out of 5 encounters were upsets, and 2 out of 3 in 2025...
https://www.ittf.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/2025_48_SEN_WS.html
LEH WR39
Winter WR17
FULL MATCH | Lee Eunhye vs Sabine Winter | Bronze Medal Match - ITTF Mixed Team World Cup 2025
https://youtu.be/SpqgjFnRBOc?t=1239

Year	Event Name	Stage	Sub-Event	Round	Player A	Player B	Games	Result	Winner
2025	ITTF Mixed Team World Cup Chengdu 2025	Position Draw	XT	2	LEE Eunhye (KOR)	WINTER Sabine (GER)	5:11 11:9 12:10	2 - 1	LEE Eunhye
2025	ITTF Mixed Team World Cup Chengdu 2025	Qualification	XT		LEE Eunhye (KOR)	WINTER Sabine (GER)	11:7 3:11 6:11	1 - 2	WINTER Sabine
2025	ITTF Men's and Women's World Cup Macao 2025	Qualification	WS		LEE Eunhye (KOR)	WINTER Sabine (GER)	4:11 7:11 11:8 7:11	1 - 3	WINTER Sabine
2024	WTT Contender Rio de Janeiro 2024	Main Draw	WS	R32	LEE Eunhye (KOR)	WINTER Sabine (GER)	10:12 7:11 11:9 11:7 7:11	2 - 3	WINTER Sabine
2023	WTT Feeder Vila Nova de Gaia 2023	Main Draw	WS	QuarterFinal	LEE Eunhye (KOR)	WINTER Sabine (GER)	12:10 15:13 6:11 11:9	3 - 1	LEE Eunhye

 

[TampaBayTableTennis]

pickin the young guns Odo and Coton to take this down

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

pickin the young guns Odo and Coton to take this down

I'm picking Sakura Yokoi and Park Ganghyeon.