Ultimate Table Tennis 2017: Shaze Challengers defeat Dabang Smashers TTC 14-9 to storm into final

Mumbai: An impressive Shaze Challengers stormed into the finals of the inaugural Ultimate Table Tennis League after they defeated Dabang Smashers TTC 14-9 at Mumbai on Saturday with their players putting an aggressive performance right from the first game. Shaze Challengers will meet Falcons TTC in the summit clash to be played on Sunday at Mumbai. In the semi-final, the team which scored 14 points first is declared as the winner and accordingly, it was Shaze Challengers in this game. [caption id=“attachment_3872805” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Shaze Challengers defeated Dabang Smashers TTC 14-9 to storm into final. Image courtesy: Facebook/ Ultimate Table Tennis[/caption] In the eight game (men’s singles - foreign player versus foreign player), Shaze Challengers just needed two points to make it to the finals and Li Ping from Qatar brushed aside opposition skipper Marcos Freitas 11-9, 11-4 and sealed an emphatic 14-9 win for Shaze Challengers. Indian Mouma Das, who lost the first two games against King Song I in the seventh round, bounced back to clinch the third game and this win gave a point to Shaze Challengers, which eventually proved crucial in their victory. Earlier, in the opening game of the tie, in men’s singles (foreign player versus Indian player), World no 14 Freitas (Dabang Smashers TTC) from Portugal won the first two games against Soumyajit Ghosh (Shaze Challengers) 11-7 and 11-6 displaying aggressive brand of table tennis, taking his team 2-0 ahead. World No 85 Ghosh rallied back by clinching the third game 11-9, making it 1-2 for Shaze Challengers. Next up were Women’s Singles (Indian versus foreign player), where World no 9 Han Ying (Shaze Challengers) from Germany, who was unbeaten in the tournament so far, outclassed Madhurika Patkar (Dabang Smashers TT) 11-4, 11-6, 11-7 to take Shaze Challengers slight ahead 4-2. In the mixed doubles (foreign and Indian pair), Amalraj Anthony and Tetyana Bilenko (Dabang Smashers TTC) took the first game 11-8 against Soumyajit and Petrissa Solja (Shaze Challengers), who came back and bagged the second game and the third game 11-7, 11-5, as they extended the team’s overall lead to 6-3. In the fourth tie (men’s singles - foreign player versus foreign player), Croatian Andrej Gacina (Shaze Challengers) got better of Ukrainian and World no 28 Koi Lei (Dabang Smashers) 11-9 in the opening game to make it 7-3 for Challengers. But Lei showed his class to make is 4-7 for Shashmers taking the second game 11-6. However, the third game was one sided with the Croatian taking it 11-7 by which Challengers extended their lead to 8-4. In the fifth game (women’s singles - foreign player versus foreign players), Kim Song I (Dabang Smashers) took the first game 11-6 against Ying (Challengers). Ying edged past her opponent 11-9, 11-10 in the rest two games, as Challengers extended their lead to 10-5, with four more ties to go. In the sixth tie of the evening, it was Men’s Singles (Indian player versus foreign player), G Sathiyan (Dabang Smashers) who took the first and the third game 11-9 and 11-4 against Li Ping from Qatar (Shaze Challengers) . And Ping clinched the second game 11-5. After the game, Shaze Challengers were leading 11-7. The seventh tie of the day (women’s singles - Foreign player versus Indian players), Kim Song I (Smashers) comprehensively took the first and second game, both 11-4 against Mouma Das (Challengers) to reduce their overall deficit to 9-11. But Mouma bounced back in the third game clinching it 11-10 and with it the Challengers extended their overall lead 12-9. With just two points to win, Ping sealed it in the next versus Freitas to help his side move into the summit clash.