WTT Star Contender: Thakkar enters men's singles semis

The Indian challenge all but ebbed at the WTT Star Contender Chennai 2025, but Manav Thakkar became the only Indian to reach the semi-finals after ousting his higher-ranked Korean opponent, Lim Jonghoon from the championship with a 3-2 upset victory on Saturday evening.

- LAKSHMANA VENKAT KUCHI

Earlier, most of the Indian challenge came to an end after the other man standing, Snehit Sujjavula also went down fighting to another high-ranked French player in the quarter-finals.

But the match that made the entire Indian contingent and the spectators proud was Manav Thakkar's encounter with the Korean player who had knocked out the world Number 5 Hugo Calderano of Brazil. Manav Thakkar quickly saw an aggressive Korean running up a 2-0 games lead with his aggressive attacking play. It was only then that the Indian player mounted his attack with an all-round display of his table tennis skills even as his coach was watching the game with a poker face from the sidelines.

But it was after a time out in the fourth game taken by Manav Thakkar, he returned as a different player, stunning the Korean with an array of shots, often catching his opponent on the wrong foot, and also confidently winning rallies. Coming from two games down, Manav Thakkar's victory comes as a blessing on an otherwise dull day as far as other encounters were concerned. Though the scoreline may read Indian losses, many of the contests were very close and the scoreline does not tell the whole story of near misses, all an indication of shape of things to come for the paddlers.