CHENNAI: After losing the season opener to Bengaluru Smashers 4-11 a couple of days back, home favourites and runners-up from the previous season, Chennai Lions registered their first victory beating Dabang Delhi 8-7 to get their campaign back on track at the Ultimate Table Tennis on Sunday.
Diya Chitale’s dominating 3-0 win came too late for Delhi as they remain winless in the fifth season of the competition. In the second fixture of the day, Jaipur Patriots opened their account with a dominating 9-6 win over U Mumba despite Manav Thakkar’s efforts in mixed doubles and men’s singles fixtures.
A Sharath Kamal made a strong comeback for Chennai after a stunning 3-0 loss to Bengaluru’s Jeet Chandra in the first match. Sharath showed his class in a 2-1 win over Delhi’s Andreas Levenko in the tie’s first men’s singles, unleashing a range of powerful smashes on the Austrian making his debut. His teammate Sakura Mori from Japan followed suit in the women’s singles as she defeated Orawan Paranang, 2-1, to extend Chennai Lions’ lead.
Mori proved her prowess in difficult circumstances, staying in control of the match despite repeated fightbacks from her opponent from Thailand. In the mixed doubles match, where Sharath and Mori faced Delhi’s Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Paranang, Chennai gained another two points. Jules Rolland defeated Sathiyan as Chennai took an 8-4 lead. Chitale fought her way back to stun Chennai’s Poymantee Baisya, however, it was too little too late for her side as Delhi could only reach seven points.
For Jaipur, Cho Seungmin, playing just his second match of UTT, set a platform once he defeated Aruna Quadri 3-0 in the opening round of the fixture against Mumbai. Coming off a stunning win against Delhi in their previous fixture, Mumbai could not continue the momentum as their Spanish import Maria Xiao lost to Suthasini Sawettabut of Thailand in the women’s singles round. At this time in the fixture, Jaipur were four points ahead of Mumbai, but the latter came back in the mixed doubles event as the pair of Xiao and Thakkar combined to give their side the first win of the day when they overruled the challenge of Nithyashree Mani and Cho 2-1.
Thakkar then made a sensational comeback against Snehit SFR to take the fourth (men’s singles) fixture towards Mumbai’s way. With five points in their kitty compared to Jaipur’s seven, Mumbai needed a clean sweep in the final match of the day when Nithyashree faced Asian Games bronze medalist Sutirtha Mukherjee. Mani, who replaced injured Sreeja Akula, took this match 2-1 as Jaipur sealed the win.
Results: Jaipur Patriots bt U Mumba TT 9-6; Chennai Lions bt Dabang Delhi TTC 8-7.