Ahmedabad SG Pipers’ captain, Manush Shah, led the team from the front as the rookies won their first match in Ultimate Table Tennis 2024.
Ahmedabad SG Pipers, the Ultimate Table Tennis 2024 rookies, won their first match thanks to captain Manush Shah’s leadership. The Ahmedabad team defeated the incumbent champions Athlead Goa Challengers at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai. Shah defeated two-time Olympian Mihai Bobocica 2-1 in their match, having partnered with Bernadette Szocs to reach the same result in the mixed doubles. Under the direction of Vita Dani and Niraj Bajaj, the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) is the governing body for the franchise-based competition.
The opening men’s singles match saw Frenchman Lilian Bardet defeat Harmeet Desai 3-0 to avenge his setback to 17-year-old Ankur Bhattacharjee, and as a result, the Ahmedabad SG Pipers were off to a flying start.
In the opening women’s singles match of the tie, Bernadette Szocs followed in the footsteps of her teammate, winning handily over youthful Yashaswini Ghorpade to bounce back from her defeat to Ayhika Mukherjee.
Next up was the mixed doubles, where Manush and Szocs defeated Harmeet and Yangzi Liu with a 2-1 victory, giving the Season 5 rookies a tie.After Manush defeated Bobocica, Reeth Rishya was in a position to create Ahmedabad SG Pipers history by winning by the largest margin in a tie. But by extending her unbeaten run that dates back to the beginning of the previous season, Liu denied Reeth the team record.
U Mumba TT defeated Dabang Delhi TTC 9–6 in the day’s first tie, marking their first-ever victory in UTT. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran upset World No. 20 Quadri Aruna to start the match between the two metropolises, but Sutirtha Mukherjee and the combination of Manav Thakkar and Maria Xiao took control from the Delhi squad.Orawan Paranang overcame Xiao to lessen the blow of the loss, but Manav came back to defeat rookie Andreas Levenko to win the tie for U Mumba TT.
The Delhi and Mumbai teams will have a short turnaround after their match today for their ties tomorrow. In the first match, Dabang Delhi TTC will take on the hosts, Chennai Lions, at 17:00, and U Mumba TT will play the Jaipur Patriots at 19:30.
Sports18 Khel will air UTT 2024 live. It may also be viewed online at JioCinema (in India) and Facebook Live (for those outside of India). The Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai has a box office located at Gate No. 1, and tickets may be purchased offline or online at BookMyShow.
