Xiao and Robles upset top seeds to win third WTT title together

Maria Xiao and Alvaro Robles beat No. 1 seeds Manush Shah and Diya Chitale in the mixed doubles final at WTT Contender Tunis 2026 to claim their third WTT Series title together. The win in Tunis was another upset on paper, but it also read like a confirmation of how dependable the Spanish pairing has become when the draw tightens and the pressure rises.

WTT said Xiao and Robles were the newly crowned mixed doubles champions in Tunis, and the result fit the profile of a partnership that has learned how to close. In doubles, the margins are built on more than shot quality: serve patterns, receive decisions, court positioning and timing between partners often decide the last points of a match. Xiao and Robles have now turned those details into titles three times on the WTT Series, which is why this latest run matters beyond one good week.

Shah and Chitale still left Tunis with a strong showing. As the event’s top seeds, the Indian pair did enough to reach the final and put themselves into contention for the trophy, only to run into a team with more championship mileage together. Their run to the title match showed the depth of the field in Tunis, while the defeat underlined how thin the line is between being the highest seed and finishing second when an established pair is across the table.

The Tunis title also sits inside a wider record for Xiao and Robles. WTT records show the pair had already won mixed doubles at WTT Contender Lima 2023, and European Table Tennis Union coverage said they were crowned mixed doubles champions at the 2024 European Championships. That track record gives the Tunis result real weight: this is not a one-off pairing catching fire, but a combination with a proven habit of delivering when the bracket gets crowded and the best seeds are still alive.

WTT social posts dated March 28, 2026, described Xiao and Robles as the mixed doubles champions in Tunis, while Khel Now identified Shah and Chitale as the runners-up. Put together, the result adds another sharp data point for a partnership that keeps outplaying its seeding and keeps collecting titles when the event gets hardest.