WTT Star Contender Chennai: Manav Thakkar, Manush Shah aim for success to build into rest of the year
Manav Thakkar will forever be indebted to Chennai for providing a major fillip to his singles career. At the WTT Star Contender here in March last year, the Indian—then ranked World No. 56 — produced a grand show, upsetting a couple of seeded players to reach a historic semifinal. From there on, it has largely been an upward curve for the 25-year-old.
Manav returns to the city stronger and more confident for the WTT Star Contender, beginning Tuesday at the Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University. Now the fourth seed armed with a career-high world ranking of 33, hopes to repeat—or even better— last year’s performance.
“I entered the world’s top 50 after the Chennai event and started doing well consistently thereafter. I also played the WTT Champions (for the first time) in Frankfurt in November last but had to withdraw in the second round due to rashes on my body,” he said, reflecting on his breakthrough season.
He has carried that momentum into 2026, reaching the second round at the WTT Champions Doha and scoring an upset win over World No. 17 Simon Gauzy in the opening round.
“I am at my peak at the moment. I’m really looking forward to playing singles as well as doubles with Manush Shah—we are the top-seeded pair here,” Manav told Sportstar on Monday.
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All of India’s top men players will compete, but the women will miss its top two players, Sreeja Akula (injury) and Manika Batra, who has opted to take a “short break”.
Top seed Oh Junsung of South Korea headlines the men’s field, with former World No. 1 Dimitrij Ovtcharov being the second seed and the star attraction. In women’s, Satsuki Odo is the top seed followed by Miyu Nagasaki. Manush Shah, seeded 15th in singles, will lead the men’s (with Manav) and mixed doubles with Diya Chitale.
Manush reached a career-high of 58 in singles last month—he is now ranked 66 and in men’s doubles, Manush and Manav pair is world ranked fifth and in mixed doubles with Diya Chitale, the pair is ranked seventh. Manav is focussed to do justice to all three events.
According to Manush, Chennai is a good training and preparatory ground for the World team championships in London from April 28 to May 10 and the Asian Games in September.
“I hope that the home ground brings me more luck and more favour and I hope that I continue to play better for my country. As far as men’s doubles and mixed doubles, we are top seeds and there are a lot of expectations out of us. At the same time, we know that we want to just believe in ourselves and keep backing ourselves and play to the strengths. Once the draw is out [on Feb. 11], we will prepare tactically with the partner and the head coach Massimo Costantini and we will go ahead step by step,” said the 25-year-old.
The qualifiers will be held on February 10 and 11 followed by the main draw on Feb. 12.
Published on Feb 09, 2026