Dempo Goa Challengers crush Dabang Delhi TTC 12-3 in UTT contest

Panaji, Jul 17 (PTI) Two-time champions Dempo Goa Challengers recorded a commanding 12-3 victory over Dabang Delhi TTC in Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) Season 7 here on Friday. The triumph for the Goa Challengers also helped them equal the biggest margin of victory in the five-match format and strengthening their grip at the top of the standings. Goa’s victory was built on complete domination, with Alvaro Robles, Abhinandh PB, Syndrela Das, and Bernadette Szocs winning their respective singles matches. Robles and Das also combined to hand Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Maria Xiao their second successive mixed doubles defeat by 2-1 (11-8, 11-5, 9-11). Robles beat Sathiyan 3-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-9) while the Asian Games-bound Syndrela got the better of Divyanshi Bhowmick 2-1 (11-9, 10-11, 11-4). Abhinandh continued his unbeaten run with another commanding straight-games victory, this time over Youssef Abdelaziz, winning the match 3-0 (11-4, 11-10, 11-8). Szocs then won the women’s singles match against Xiao, beating her opponent 2-1 (11-5, 11-10, 10-11). Earlier in the day, Asian Games bronze medallist Ayhika Mukherjee handed Sofia Polcanova her first defeat of the season as HVR Kolkata ThunderBlades defeated Ahmedabad APL Pipers 9-6 to register their second win of the campaign. Ayhika's impressive 2-1 (8-11, 11-8, 11-3) triumph over the Austrian star capped another strong all-round display from Kolkata, who climbed further into playoff contention. The tie swung decisively in Kolkata's favour through the middle matches after Ankur Bhattacharjee and Ayhika delivered a commanding mixed doubles victory by 2-1 (11-9, 11-3, 4-11) over Payas Jain and Polcanova. Eduard Ionescu, then, produced a clinical straight-games win -- 3-0 (11-7, 11-6, 11-7) -- over Payas, before Ayhika completed the job in style. In other matches, Kolkata's Ankur Bhattacharjee lost to Adrien Rassenfosse 1-2 (11-10, 10-11, 10-11) while Zeng Jian lost to Ahmedabad's Manika Batra 1-2 (7-11, 11-6, 10-11). PTI DDV ATK