Ahmedabad, Jun 3: U Mumba bounced back from the initial loss to outwit Ahmedabad SG Pipers 10-5 at the Ultimate Table Tennis Season 6 here on Monday.
It was Ahmedabad SG Pipers’ second consecutive defeat in the league.
U Mumba lost 6-9 against PBG Pune Jaguars in their first match on Sunday, while Ahmedabad SG Pipers were beaten 5-10 by two-time defending champions Goa Challengers..
France’s Lilian Bardet opened U Mumba’s account with a 2-1 (11-4 11-9 4-11) win over Snehit Suravajjula of Ahmedabad SG Pipers.
Young Yashaswini Ghorpade, playing her first match of the league, then beat countrymate Ayhika Mukherjee 2-1 (8-11 11-7 11-4) in women’s singles.
Romanian Bernadette Szocs and Akash Pal then joined hands for U Mumba to beat the Ahmedabad pair of Ayika and Ricardo Walther of Germany in the mixed doubles..
In the reverse men’s singles match, Ahmedabad’s Walther prevailed over Akash Pal 2-1 (8-11 11-6 11-5) but U Mumba still managed to edge their rivals by a margin on 7-5 points going into the deciding women’s singles..
In the final match of the day, Scozs outplayed Italy’s Giorgia Piccolin 3-0 (11-9 11-10 11-4) to hand U Mumba a convincing win.
Earlier, India’s 18-year-old sensation Ankur Bhattacharjee stunned Olympian and world No. 55 Kirill Gerassimenko of Kazakhstan to hand debutants Kolkata Thunder Blades a fighting 8-7 victory on points over Chennai Lions in a pulsating first UTT tie of the day..
Ankur gave a flying start to the Thunder Blades with a commanding 3-0 (4-11 10-11 7-11) win over Gerassimenko, an opponent 10 years and 104 spots ahead of him in the first men’s single match..
Ankur’s dominance was clear from the start. His lethal backhand, statistically the most effective in the league last season, delivered nine winners in Game 1 alone..
He edged a tense second game with a Golden Point and sealed the match with a clinical 11-7 finish..
World no. 36 Fan Sqi of China brought Chennai Lions back into the contest with a 3-0 (11-8 11-10 11-6) win over National Games gold edallist Selena Selvakumar of Kolkata in women’s singles..
Ankur and Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico gave Kolkata Thunder Blades a valuable point by winning the last game even though they lost the mixed doubles match 1-2 to Payas Jain Fan Sqi of the Lions..
In the reverse men’s singles match, world no. 27 Aruna Quadri of Nigeria had to face strong fight from lower ranked Payas Jain before registering a tough 2-1 (11-3 8-11 11-9) win to level the tie 6-6 and take it to the decider.
In the deciding second women’s singles match, Diaz produced her best display as she used her booming top-spin smashes to outplay Poymantee Baisya of Chennai Lions 2-1 (11-6 7-11 11-6) and pocket the humdinger for Kolkata Thunder Blades.
According to the format of the tournament, a game is won when a player scores first 11 points, with a golden point used for deciding games that are tied at 10-10, in the league stage.
A team wins a tie by winning the most games. At the league stage, a team bags a tie by winning at least eight out of the 15 total games. (PTI)
