It was a good day for Chennai paddlers as A Sharath Kamal and G Sathiyan pulled off wins over higher-ranked opponents in the Ultimate Table Tennis at Chennai on Friday. Kamal’s victory though made an impact with RP-SG Mavericks posted a narrow 14-13 win over Dabang Smashers TTC, reported PTI.
It was Mavericks’ first win in the tournament, after suffering defeats at the hands of Falcons TTC and Maharashtra United in earlier matches. Kamal got the better of World No.14 Marcos Freitas of Portugal 11-8 11-9 5-11. It was Freitas’ first loss in the tournament. Kamal had earlier teamed up with Sofia Polcanova to win the mixed doubles for his team, beating Sathiyan and Kim Song 11-5 11-7 11-5.
German paddler Sabine Winter blanked Madhurika Patkar 11-9 11-9 11-6 to secure three vital points for the Mavericks. In the penultimate rubber, Freitas bounced back from his loss to Kamal, to beat Fegerl 11-5 11-5 10-11 to leave the tie interestingly poised at 13-11 in favour of the Mavericks.
The final match saw Polcanova go down to Tetyana Bilenko by two games to one after capturing the opening game. Bilenko’s come-from-behind 8-11, 11-7, 11-10 victory in a thrilling encounter saw Smashers narrow the losing margin to 13-14. Earlier in the night, Sathiyan got Smashers TTC to a winning start by getting the better of Austrian world number 23 Fegerl in the first match. Sathiyan won 11-5, 11-9, 10-11 to underline his growing stature. Playing aggressively, the home boy kept the experienced Fegerl guessing with powerful shots on both flanks.
In the second tie, Archana Kamath took the first game against Tetyana Bilenko 11-10 but lost the next two 7-11, 8-11 to hand Smashers a 4-2 lead. Sharath Kamal provided more joy to the home fans by joining hands with Sofia Polcanova to beat Sathiyan and Kim Song I 11-5, 11-7, 11-5 to put the Mavericks ahead 5-4. In the fourth match, China-born Ukraine world number 28 Kou Lei of Smashers edged out Portuguese world number 31 Tiago Apolonia 2-1 (11-3, 10-11, 11-10).
At the end of the Chennai leg of UTT, Falcons are on top with 50 points followed by Smashers on 39 and Mavericks on 37. Falcons TTC will meet Shaze Challengers on Friday as the action shifts to Thyagraj Stadium in New Delhi until July 25 for the second leg.
