WTT Contender Skopje Concludes: Satsuki Odo the Standout with a Double Title
WTT Contender Skopje Concludes: Satsuki Odo the Standout with a Double Title
In a thrilling finale to the 2026 WTT Contender Skopje, Darko Jorgic was crowned men’s singles champion in North Macedonia.
He beat Kanak Jha 4-2 in a breathless final, with game scores of 3-11, 16-14, 14-12, 8-11, 11-8, 11-7.
All the pre-match talk had centered on Jorgic’s American opponent: Jha had historically reached the semifinals at the 2025 WTT Champions Yokohama less than a year earlier, and he carried that hot form into this event.
Making his first WTT-series final appearance, Jha got off to a near-perfect start. He took the first game by a huge 8-point margin and led 9-4 in the second, looking set to extend his advantage quickly.
Jha had three game-point chances and was one step from a commanding two-game lead, but Jorgic incredibly saved all three. After a sigh of relief, Jorgic pulled off another escape in the third game: he first fought back from a nightmare 0-5 start, then saved another game point at 9-10 down before going on to win.
On another day Jha might have led 3-0, but instead he had to face the frustrating reality of trailing 2-1. To his credit, the 25-year-old American kept throwing everything at his Slovenian opponent, but in the end Jorgic had the edge over the six games.
Back on the title trail, Darko Jorgic won his second WTT-series title, adding to the 2024 WTT Contender Lima. He also leads his WTT head-to-head with Kanak Jha, winning two of their three meetings.
In the women’s singles final, Satsuki Odo beat Honoka Hashimoto 4-0 to take the title, with scores of 11-7, 11-9, 11-7, 11-3.
In Sunday’s final, Odo had to stay patient, constantly calculating and waiting for her moment against one of the sport’s top choppers. Her persistence paid off as she swept Hashimoto in four games to claim her fourth women’s singles title of 2026.
A beaming Odo collected her fourth WTT singles title of 2026.
Sunday brought more than one trophy: Odo also partnered Sakura Yokoi to beat Sachi Aoki and Cocona Muramatsu for the women’s doubles title (11-5, 11-6, 17-15).
In men’s doubles, Oh Junsung and Lim Jonghoon successfully defended their Skopje title, beating Darko Jorgic and Deni Kozul 12-10, 11-9, 11-5 to continue their strong run after winning here in 2025.
In the mixed doubles final, Hiromu Kobayashi and Miyuu Kihara of Japan beat Dorr (France) and Diaz (Puerto Rico) 3-0 (11-2, 11-6, 11-9).
Original report by Hu Qingyuan, Ping Pang Wang