The 2025 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships are underway in Doha, Qatar, from May 17-25. While India has seen success in doubles matches, Sreeja Akula faced an early exit in the singles competition.
Akula, India's top-ranked women's singles player at world No. 34, suffered a disappointing first-round loss to Thailand's Suthasini Sawettabut, ranked No. 84. Akula won the opening game but then lost her momentum, making numerous unforced errors, which led to her defeat in just 33 minutes with a score of 1-4 (11-9, 8-11, 6-11, 5-11, 2-11).
Despite Akula's exit, there were positive results for India in the doubles events. The Asian Games medalists Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee secured a thrilling 3-2 victory against the Turkish pair of Ozge Yilmaz and Ece Harac. After a five-game match, the Indian duo ended their six-match losing streak. Diya Chitale and Yashaswini Ghorpade also advanced to the second round, overcoming Uzbekistan's Magdieva and Erkebaeva 3-1. After losing the first game closely, they won the next three to secure their place in the next round.
In men's doubles, Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah continued their strong form, achieving a straight-game victory, 3-0, against Slovenia’s Deni Kozul and Peter Hribar. Manush Shah also won his singles round of 128 match against Tiago Apolonia of Portugal 4-2. Diya Chitale also progressed to the second round of the women's singles with a dominant 4-0 win against Sofia-Xuan Zhang of Spain.
The Championships take place over nine days at the Lusail Sports Arena and Qatar University Sports Complex. The tournament features five events: men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles. The format is a single-elimination, best-of-seven games for singles and best-of-five for doubles. Approximately 640 players from 127 member associations are participating.