WTT Star Contender Chennai: Record 19 Indians to compete in Sharath's swansong event – Preview

The 2025 WTT Star Contender in Chennai, Tamil Nadu is all set to commence on Tuesday.

It will mark the first time that the southern Indian city is hosting a WTT recognised event. Goa had hosted the previous two editions of the competition.

The tournament will mark the end of a decorated Indian athletes career with veteran Achanta Sharath Kamal having announced his retirement.

Sharath, 42, has been the most successful table tennis player from India, making his presence felt at the highest level for almost two decades.

The Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna awardee will bow out from the sport in front of his home fans and would hope to do so with a heroic triumph.

India will field a record 19 players in the main draw of the 2025 WTT Star Contender Chennai. This development comes after reigning national champions Divya Chitale and Manush Shah were handed wildcard entries last week.

Besides, the likes of Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Manav Thakkar, Yashashwini Ghorpade, Harmeet Desai, Snehit Survajjula, Ankur Bhattacharjee, Ayhika Mukherjee, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Swastika Ghosh, Suhana Saini, Taneesha Kotecha, Krittwika Roy, Mudit Dani, and Syndrela Das will also be in action across various disciplines in the main draw.

Sharath Kamal is also set to pair up with Snehit for the men's doubles event, where the duo of Manav-Manush will start as the top seeds.

The two singles national champions – Diya and Manush – will be the fourth seeds in mixed doubles.

The competition will start with a two-day qualification round on Tuesday. All main draw matches will be played from Thursday – 27 March, 2025.

The main draw will see a 48-player field in the singles events, whereas all the doubles discipline will have 16 pairs apiece in contention.

Prize Money

The 2025 WTT Star Contender has a total prize pool of $275,000.

Besides, there will also be ITTF Table Tennis world ranking points on offer.

Indians in main draw

Men's Singles: Manav Thakkar, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Harmeet Desai, Manush Shah, Achanta Sharath Kamal, Snehit Suravajjula, Ankur Bhattacharjee

Women's Singles: Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, Yashashwini Ghorpade, Diya Chitale, Swastika Ghosh, Ayhika Mukherjee, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Suhana Saini, Krittwika Roy, Taneesha Kotecha

Men's Doubles: Manav Thakkar-Manush Shah, Sharath Kamal-Snehit Suravajjula, Sathiyan-Harmeet, Mudit Dani-Kim Taehyun (MLT)

Women's Doubles: Ayhikha-Sutirtha, Diya-Yashashwini, Swastika-Sreeja, Syndrela-Suhana

Mixed Doubles: Diya-Manush, Harmeet-Yashashwini, Manika-Manav, Sathiyan-Sreeja

Where to Watch?

You can catch all the LIVE action from the 2025 WTT Star Contender Chennai on the WTT YouTube channel.