Rising stars of mixed-doubles table tennis

Diya Chitale and Manush Shah are the first Indians to qualify for the WTT Finals

- Shail Desai

Chitale and Shah at the WTT Star Contender Foz do Iguaçu in August.

(COURTESY WTT)

A couple of years ago, two juniors were gradually finding their feet among the top paddlers of the country. Diya Chitale and Manush Shah were part of the national camp, though lower down the pecking order in terms of opportunities and experience.

Chitale was just out of her teens, Shah a couple of years older. Both were looking for a partner in the mixed doubles.

“Everybody above us was already paired. I'm a left-handed player and since there aren't too many in India, it's not easy to play alongside one. But Diya was open to the idea, so that's how it all started,” Shah, 24, recalls.

They realised something had clicked when they made the quarterfinal at their first tournament in Muscat in October 2023. Six months later, they had broken into the top 40 of the world. And this month, they became the first Indians to qualify for the season-ending WTT Finals—it features the top-7 mixed doubles pairs of the world and one wild card from the host nation—that will be played in Hong Kong in December.

“We are a young pair and have a long way to go. But this year, we've managed some good wins against the Japanese and Koreans, which has done wonders for our confidence. The WTT Finals promises high-quality matches, a lot of exposure that will help us prepare for future tournaments,” Chitale, 22, says.

“At the start of the year, the goal was to simply enter the top 10 of the world. And to get there has been really encouraging,” Shah says.