Ahmedabad, May 29 (IANS) The inaugural edition of the UTT Juniors Table Tennis tournament kicked off on Thursday. U Mumba and Dempo Goa Challengers secured big victories of 7-2 in their respective ties while the Kolkata ThunderBlades edged past Stanley’s Chennai Lions 5-4 in the U-15 tournament.

Kolkata ThunderBlades emerged victorious in the first tie of the tournament against Stanley’s Chennai Lions, winning a total of 5 sets while the Lions managed to win 4. Ritvik Gupta began Kolkata’s success tale as he beat Chennai’s Siddhanth Dhariwal by 3-0 (11-6, 11-9, 11-9) in the boys’ singles category.

This was followed by the team’s victory in the mixed doubles event as Ritvik and Swara got the better of Siddhanth and Divyanshi by 2-1 (11-10, 6-11, 11-10). The girls’ singles event went in Chennai’s favour as Divyanshi Bhowmick beat Swara Karmakar by 3-1 (11-10, 11-7, 11-9).

In the second tie, U Mumba TT registered a dominating victory over Dabang Delhi T.T.C. by 7-2. In the boys’ singles event, Delhi’s Akash Rajavelu beat Prateek Tulsani by 2-1 (11-9, 11-5, 7-11) while the mixed doubles event saw U Mumba taking the front seat as Prateek and Ananya won 3-0 (11-5, 11-7, 11-5) against Delhi’s Akash and Dhaani. With Ananya Muralidharan securing a 3-0 (11-5, 11-6, 11-4) win over Dhaani Jain in the girls’ singles event, U Mumba TT confirmed their victory.

In the final tie of the day, Dempo Goa Challengers beat Ahmedabad SG Pipers by 7-2. While Goa’s Sahil Rawat beat Abheek Kashyap by 3-0 (11-4, 11-5, 11-7) in the boys’ singles event, the mixed doubles event also saw Goa emerging victorious with Sahil and Aarya defeating Abheek and Mouboni by 3-0. The final match, however, went in Ahmedabad’s favour with Mouboni Chatterjee defeating Arya Redkar by 2-1.

The second day of the tournament will see three ties with U Mumba TT taking on PBG Pune Jaguars in the first clash, followed by a contest between Ahmedabad SG Pipers and Kolkata ThunderBlades. The final match of the day will take place between Jaipur Patriots and Dabang Delhi T.T.C.

–IANS

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