In front of a sparse crowd, the match between Shaze Challengers and Dabang Smashers in the Ultimate Table Tennis League here on Friday went down to the wire, with Petrissa Solja defeating Tetyana Bilenko in the ninth and final rubber, which enabled the Challengers edge out Smashers 15-12.
Before the decider, the Challengers were leading the tie 13-11 and required Solja to win just one game and Bilenko to win all three.
Solja didn’t wilt under pressure. A naturally attacking player, the German won 11-5, 6-11, 11-10 against the Ukrainian.
The Challengers rode on a fine performance from its star player and World No. 9 Han Ying of Germany.
Ying, the tournament’s top seed, levelled the scores for the Challengers after her team-mate Soumyajit Ghosh lost to Marcos Freitas of Portugal in three games in the first rubber.
The best match, inarguably, was the one between two women’s defence players, Ying and Kim Song I in the fifth rubber.
The North Korean attacked for the most part to win the first game with wonderful forehand top-spins, Ying responded in equal measure to take the remaining two games.
Amalraj of Smashers proved a hard nut to crack against Andrej Gacina of Croatia in the sixth match.
Ranked 85 places below Gacina, Amalraj matched him stroke for stroke. His forehand top-spin from the back of the table and his control made it an interesting watch.
However, the Indian was done in by the 10-second rule. Serving 9-10 in the third game, the umpire docked a point for violating the rule.
For the Smashers, Freitas’ loss of a game each to Ghosh and Li Peng, having won both his singles matches, proved costly.
The results: Shaze Challengers bt Dabang Smashers 15-12 (Soumyajit Ghosh lost to Marcos Freitas 11-3, 11-6, 10-11; Han Ying bt Madhurika Patkar 11-6, 11-4, 11-6; Petrissa Solja & Soumyajit bt Kou Lei & Madhurika Patkar 11-9, 11-8, 11-4; Andrej Gacina lost to Kou Lei 11-9, 11-9, 9-11; Han Ying bt Kim Song I 11-6, 9-11, 10-11; Andrej Gacina bt Anthony Amalraj 11-10, 2-11, 9-11; Mouma Das lost to Kim Song 11-8, 11-8, 11-6; Li Peng lost to Freitas 7-11, 11-6, 11-5; Petrissa Solja bt Tetyana Belinko 5-11, 11-6, 10-11).
Saturday’s match: Oilmax-Stag Yoddhas vs Maharashtra United.
