Ultimate Table Tennis 2018: Manika Batra, Gnanasekaran Sathiyan win as Dabang Smashers rise to top

Pune: Manika Batra continued to hog the limelight in the Ultimate Table Tennis, scalping another higher ranked player at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex. Riding on the winning start provided by the 2018 Commonwealth Games double gold medallist, Dabang Smashers TTC put it across defending champions Falcons TTC 17-4. [caption id=“attachment_4524851” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Manika Batra. Iimage Courtesy: Twitter @UltTableTennis[/caption] They won six of the seven matches in the tie to emerge as the leaders of the Pune leg with 31 points in their kitty. The outcome of Tuesday’s tie between Warriors TTC and Empowerji Challengers will not have any bearing on Dabang’s position as they have just 7 and 8 points respectively. India’s top-ranked male player (World No. 44) and Dabang captain Gnanasekaran Sathiyan also came up with another sterling display by turning in two winning performances. He first teamed up with Japanese Sakura Mori to win their mixed doubles 3-0 against Sanil Shetty and Bernadette Szocs before extending his unbeaten run in singles since last season by upstaging Spain’s Alvaro Robles 3-0 (11-10, 11-6, 11-6). Once Manika squeezed past World No. 30 Matilda Ekholm 2-1 (8-11, 11-10, 11-10) in a pulsating duel, the Smashers were all over their rivals. Japanese World No. 27 Yoshida Masaki downed Sanil Shetty 3-0 (11-9, 11-4, 11-4) and their fluent victory in the mixed doubles saw the Season 1 semi-finalists race to a 8-1 lead. The 23-year-old Manika matched her Swedish rival’s guile and unleashed 10 winners that eventually made the difference. All three games were locked at 8-8 but the Indian, ranked World No. 80, broke through twice to net golden points and seal victory. Falcons’ captain Liam Pitchford reduced the margin with a hard-fought 2-1 (11-10, 11-9, 6-11) victory over Masaki, who featured in two men’s singles matches tonight. It was the only win that Falcons registered in the tie as Smashers’ 17-year-old Puerto Rican Adriana Diaz, Sathiyan and Mori won the remaining three singles without much ado. World No. 38 Adriana’s attacking display was instrumental in the youngest player of the tournament accounting for the 23-year-old Romanian Bernadette 2-1 (11-9, 11-8, 9-11). Sakura completed Dabang’s dominance with a 3-0 (11-3, 11-7, 11-10) win over Sutirtha Mukherjee.