WTT Contender Tunis 2026: Manush Shah, Harmeet Desai in men’s doubles final

The Indian men’s doubles pair of Manush Shah and Harmeet Desai advanced to the final of the USD 100,000 WTT Contender Tunis 2026 on Saturday.

The second-seeded duo will face top seeds Florian Bourrassaud and Esteban Dorr of France later in the day.

The semifinal was an all Indian affair with Manush-Harmeet recovering from two games down to beat Snehit Suravajjula and Akash Pal 3-2 (9-11, 5-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-8).

Third seed Payas Jain and Ankur Bhattacharjee lost their second round encounter to Snehit-Akash 2-3 (6-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-13, 9-11).

Manush-Diya finish runner-up

In mixed doubles, top seed Manush Shah and Diya Chitale ended up as runners-up, losing the final to second seed Alvaro Robles and Maria Xiao of Spain 1-3 (9-11, 13-11, 10-12, 5-11).

Manush and Diya displayed immense grit in a back-and-forth battle against the Spanish duo.

After narrowly dropping a tense first game, the World No. 6 pair held their nerve at the end of the second game, saving two game points to claim the set and level the match.

The momentum stayed with the Indian pair into the third game. They stretched their Spanish opponent before conceding 10-12 and serving out the final game.

Other Indian pairs in fray included Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade, and Sayali Wani and her Tunisian partner Wassim Essid. Both lost their respective first round matches.

In women’s doubles, two Indian pairs — top seed Diya Chitale and Yashaswini Ghorpade, and Syndrela Das and Sutirtha Mukherjee — advanced to the semifinals.

Diya-Yashaswini lost to Elizabet Abraamian-Maria Panfilova in a five-set thriller 2-3 (7-11, 10-12, 12-10, 13-11, 5-11) while Syndrela- Sutirtha lost to Japan's Misuzu Takeya and Yuka Kaneyoshi in straight sets 0-3 (7-11, 7-11, 8-11).

Manush Shah, the sixth seed, lost to wildcard Joao Geraldo 0-3 (8-11, 2-11, 8-11) in the men’s singles quarterfinal. Earlier, he had defeated Harmeet Desai 3-2 (6-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-3, 11-9) in the second round. Shehit Suravajjula and Payas Jain were knocked out in the first round.

In women’s singles, Yashaswini Ghorpade lost to top seed Joo Cheonhui 0-3 (8-11, 10-12, 8-11). Qualifier Sutirtha Mukherjee was beaten by Maria Xiao 0-3 (11-13, 11-13, 9-11) in the second round. Earlier, Xiao had defeated Diya Chitale in straight sets.