Ultimate Table Tennis: Goa Challengers pip Chennai Lions 8-7 to win fourth season

Fortunes swung from one side to another as Alvaro Robles, Harmeet Desai and Reeth Tennison propelled Goa Challengers to a title win in the Ultimate Table Tennis season four with an 8-7 victory, in an intense final against the defending champions Chennai Lions on Sunday. Goa Challengers proved themselves to be the better side in the summit clash, to lift their first title at Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex. Harmeet Desai ended Benedikt Duda’s unbeaten run in the competition with a 2-1 win and Robles blanked Indian star Achanta Sharath Kamal 3-0, after which Tennison won a nervous final game to help her side lift the trophy. Goa were ahead 7-5 heading into the fifth and final match, between India’s Sutirtha Mukherjee and Tennison. Mukherjee kept her team’s hopes alive by winning the first two games (11-7, 11-10) which brought the scoreline to 7-7, but Tennison clinched an 11-6 win in the third game to seal her team’s title win. Earlier at the start, Chennai Lions began well with Germany’s world No. 34 Duda defeating India’s 65th-ranked Desai 11-6 in the first game of the men’s singles. Desai fought back in the second game to force Duda into making several errors, winning it 11-4 in a commanding manner to level the scores. The Indian paddler then came from behind in the third game and prevailed with an 11-8 win, despite the German staging a strong fight. After the first match, Goa Challengers led 2-1 against the Lions. In the second game - a women’s singles contest - between Chennai’s Yangzi Liu and Goa’s Suthasini Sawettabut, the two players went neck-to-neck until the latter edged ahead to take the first game 11-7 and extend the lead for Challengers by 3-1. But in the second game, the 32nd-ranked Liu bounced back to win 11-6. The third game also went in favour of Liu, ranked 32, who had finally begun showing emotions during an 11-5 win, making it a 2-1 win against the world No. 39 Sawettabut, but more importantly, levelling the scores 3-3 in the final. The win also maintained Liu’s unbeaten run in the UTT season four match-wise. Sharath partnered with Liu to put Chennai Lions ahead 4-3 with an 11-7 win in the first game against Challengers’ pair of Sawettabut and Desai. The second game was fought closely but Sharath and Liu were too good against the Goa duo, winning 11-9 and giving Chennai Lions a 5-3 lead. But in an upset of sorts, Sawettabut and Desai fought until the end in the third game which went to the wire, edging the Chennai pair 11-10 for a 5-4 scoreline in the final. In the fourth match of the final - men’s singles - between the 47th ranked player Robles against Sharath, Spain’s Robles took the first game 11-8 in style, and also equalled the scoreline 5-5. Robles was indeed superior in his play against the Indian star, winning the second game with a similar margin to put Goa Challengers 6-5 ahead. The third game went right until the golden point as scores were tied 10-10, but Robles won and celebrated wildly by taking his shirt off and jumping in joy, since Goa Challengers stood one game away from winning the trophy after having a vital 7-5 lead.