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Dempo Goa Challengers dominate Dabang Delhi TTC 12-3 in Ultimate Table Tennis Season 7. HVR Kolkata ThunderBlades also win, boosting playoff hopes.
Ayhika Mukherjee and Bernadette Scozs in action (Picture credit: Butterfly UTT)
Two-time champions Dempo Goa Challengers produced a dominant display to thrash Dabang Delhi TTC 12-3 in Ultimate Table Tennis Season 7 on Friday. The emphatic win matched the biggest winning margin in the five-match format and further strengthened Goa’s hold at the top of the standings.
Earlier in the day, Ayhika Mukherjee became the first paddler to beat Sofia Polcanova this season, inspiring HVR Kolkata ThunderBlades to a crucial 9-6 win against Ahmedabad APL Pipers and boosting their playoff hopes.
Goa’s win was built on absolute domination throughout, with Alvaro Robles, Abhinandh PB, Syndrela Das and Bernadette Szocs all winning their respective singles matches.
Robles and Syndrela also inflicted a second consecutive Mixed Doubles defeat on Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Maria Xiao. Meanwhile, Kolkata bounced back from an early deficit with a dominant Mixed Doubles display, a clinical outing from Eduard Ionescu and Ayhika Mukherjee’s landmark comeback victory over Sofia Polcanova.
Undefeated heading into the tie, Goa made a flying start as Robles outclassed Sathiyan in straight games before Syndrela edged fellow teenager Divyanshi Bhowmick in a high-quality battle between two of the league’s and India’s most promising young talents.
Robles and Syndrela continued Goa’s dominance in the Mixed Doubles, combining to overcome the formidable duo of Sathiyan and Xiao in the first two games and extend their team’s lead.
Abhinandh extended his unbeaten streak with another commanding straight-games win, this time overcoming Youssef Abdelaziz. Reigning MVP Bernadette then capped off the dominant performance by beating Xiao to complete the rout.
In the day’s opening tie, Ahmedabad APL Pipers made the stronger start as Adrien Rassenfosse edged Ankur Bhattacharjee in a thrilling contest, clinching the final two games via Golden Point.
Manika Batra then followed it up with another hard-fought three-game win against Zeng Jian to give the Pipers an early lead.
Kolkata responded emphatically, with Ankur and Ayhika combining to dominate the Mixed Doubles contest. Eduard Ionescu then produced a commanding straight-games win against Payas Jain to bring the tie back on level terms.
Ayhika then capped a memorable comeback by overturning an early setback, recovering from a lost opening game to become the first player to beat Polcanova this season and bag Kolkata’s second win of the campaign.
Earlier, Dream UTT Juniors, UTT’s grassroots competition running alongside Season 7, saw Dabang Delhi TTC beat PBG Pune Jaguars 6-3 to seal their place in the semifinals.
The result confirmed the final four lineup, with Delhi joining UP Prometheans, U Mumba TT and Dempo Goa Challengers in the knockout stage.
All UTT Season 7 matches will be live on Star Sports Khel (Hindi), Star Sports Tamil 2 HD and Star Sports Tamil 3 HD, and streamed live on JioHotstar in Hindi, Tamil and English.
Final Score
HVR Kolkata ThunderBlades 9-6 Ahmedabad APL Pipers
Ankur Bhattacharjee lost to Adrien Rassenfosse 1-2 (11-10, 10-11, 10-11)
Zeng Jian lost to Manika Batra 1-2 (7-11, 11-6, 10-11)
Ankur Bhattacharjee/Ayhika Mukherjee bt. Payas Jain/Sofia Polcanova 2-1 (11-9, 11-3, 4-11)
Eduard Ionescu bt. Payas Jain 3-0 (11-7, 11-6, 11-7)
Ayhika Mukherjee bt. Sofia Polcanova 2-1 (8-11, 11-8, 11-3)
Dempo Goa Challengers 12-3 Dabang Delhi TTC
Alvaro Robles bt. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran 3-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-9)
Syndrela Das bt. Divyanshi Bhowmick 2-1 (11-9, 10-11, 11-4)
Alvaro Robles/Syndrela Das bt. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran/Maria Xiao 2-1 (11-8, 11-5, 9-11)
Abhinandh P.B bt. Youssef Abdelaziz 3-0 (11-4, 11-10, 11-8)
Bernadette Szocs bt. Maria Xiao 2-1 (11-5, 11-10, 10-11)
The next steps for winning teams in UTT Season 7 involve progressing to the knockout stage, which includes semi-finals and a grand final.
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