Mumbai boy Sanil Shetty helps team outclasss Shaze Challengers to win Ultimate TT title
Falcons TTC's Sanil Shetty and Lee Ho Ching at NSCI yesterday. PIC/SURESH KARKERA
Falcons TTC outclassed Shaze Challengers 14-9 in a thrilling final to emerge winners of the inaugural CEAT Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) at the NSCI Sports Club yesterday. According to the rules, the team that secures 14 points first is declared the winner.
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The opening match between Qatar's Li Ping and Falcons' Mumbai boy Sanil Shetty kept everyone on the edge of their seats, including former India cricketer Farokh Engineer and Bollywood's Amitabh Bachchan.
Shetty, who was given the title of a 'foreign slayer' in the tournament lived up to the moniker, specially in the opening game, grabbing vital winners through long rallies. However, the Goregaon resident couldn't keep up to the pace of World No 42 Ping, who grabbed the first two games. Shetty did however manage to salvage a game in the opening match, by winning the last set 11-8.
In-form World No 13 Wu Yang then brushed aside Mouma Das (Shaze Challengers) 3-0 in the women's singles to hand the lead to Falcons TTC 4-2. In the mixed doubles match (foreign/indian), Falcons' Shetty and Lee Ho Ching clean swept Soumyajit Ghosh and Petrissa Solja 3-0 to extend their lead to 7-2.
In the men's foreign player category, Challengers skipper Andrej Gacina beat Britain's Liam Pitchford 2-1 in the men's singles. Falcons were leading TTC 8-4 at this stage.
The turning point of the match was when Yang broke Challengers' World No 9 German seed Hang Ying's unbeaten streak — winning the foreign player women's singles 10-11, 4-11, 8-11. Challengers' Soumyajit Ghosh could then offer very little resistance to Pitch, who won the match 11-5, 10-11, 7-11. Ying was in action again, but she was untroubled by India's Sutirtha Mukherjee.
The German won her match 11-4, 11-8, 11-7.
It took Falcons skipper Par Gerell just two matches to find that one win his side were looking for. The Swedish ace, ranked 42 in the world, finally steered his side to victory in the second game.
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