UTT: Karlsson ends Sathiyan’s undefeated run in singles, helps Mavericks defeat Smashers

Manika Batra’s heroics went in vain as RP-SG Mavericks outplayed table toppers Dabang Smashers in Ultimate Table Tennis at the Thyagaraj Stadium in Delhi on Wednesday.

The 13-8 win saw Mavericks end the night on 37 points, just two adrift of table toppers Smashers.

Manika came back from a game down to beat world No 60 Sabine Winter of Germany 4-11, 11-3, 11-7 in a thrilling encounter to help Smashers get to an early lead but the Mavericks fought back to record a 13-8 victory.

Manika, playing in front of her home crowd, conceded the opening game in a rather meek fashion. But she made a strong comeback and fired in 10 winners in the next two games to seal the match.

Skipper Harmeet Desai, however, levelled the score (3-3) for Mavericks in the next match with a 2-1 (11-8, 10-11, 9-11) over world No 27 Yoshida Masaki of Japan.

In the mixed doubles encounter, captain Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Sakura Mori recorded a pulsating 10-11, 11-9, 11-2 victory over the pair of Harmeet and Doo Hoi Kem to help Smashers lead again.

Cedric Nuytinck increased the Smashers’ lead with a 2-1 (7-11,11-3,11-7) win over world No 33 Kou Lei.

World No 13 Doo Hoi Kem brought Mavericks right back into the tie with a dominating 3-0 victory over Sakura Mori.

With the home side trailing 7-8, it was up to Sathiyan to keep his side in contention for the win.

But Mattias Karlsson, World No 18 from Sweden proved too much for the Indian and underlined his authority turning in a sterling performance to win 3-0 (11-7, 11-8, 11-8) to condemn Sathiyan to his first singles defeat in UTT as well as to take the tie out of Smashers’ reach.

In the last encounter of the night, Mouma Das fetched more points for the Mavericks with a 2-1 (10-11, 11-8, 11-9) victory over the world No 38 Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico.