Ahmedabad, June 2 (IANS) India’s 18-year-old sensation Ankur Bhattacharjee stunned Olympian and World No. 55 Kirill Gerassimenko with a sweeping 3-0 victory, as debutants Kolkata ThunderBlades opened their Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) Season 6 campaign with a thrilling 8-7 win over Stanley’s Chennai Lions.

Staged under the aegis of the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) and promoted by Niraj Bajaj and Vita Dani, UTT continues to grow as a premier professional league. All 23 ties, over 16 action-packed days, will take place at Ahmedabad’s EKA Arena, will be broadcast on Star Sports Khel and Star Sports 2 Tamil, and streamed live on JioHotstar for fans across the country.

With Indian stars clashing against international heavyweights across all four singles matches, the spotlight was firmly on Ankur, who stunned the 28-year-old Gerassimenko, an opponent ten years older and 104 spots ahead of him, 3-0 in the opener.

Ankur’s dominance was clear from the start: his lethal backhand, statistically the most effective in the league last season, delivered nine winners in Game 1 alone. He edged a tense second game with a Golden Point and sealed the match with a clinical 11-7 finish, also securing the Indian Player of the Tie and Shot of the Tie honours.

Despite that early blow, Chennai struck back through World No. 36 Fan Siqi, the league’s highest-valued player in the auction and only the second Chinese woman to compete in IndianOil UTT. Fan showed her class in a 3-0 win over National Games gold medallist Selena Selvakumar, who was returning to the league after six years.

Chennai then claimed the mixed doubles through Fan and Payas Jain, who outplayed Ankur and Adriana Diaz in the first two games, though the Kolkata pair salvaged a game with a late surge led by Diaz’s spectacular back-to-back smashes.

Kolkata responded with a strong finish. In the fourth match, former World Youth No. 1 Payas took a game off World No. 27 Aruna Quadri, but the experienced Nigerian proved too steady in crunch moments, winning 2-1. That left it to Adriana Diaz, ranked 17 in the world, to close it out.

Facing Poymantee Baisya, the Puerto Rican star took the decider 11-6 after an early 5-0 lead, securing the tie for the debutants. For her remarkable IndianOil UTT debut, Fan was named the Foreign Player of the Tie.

Earlier, at the UTT Juniors, Sahil Rawat excelled in men’s singles and mixed doubles, leading Dempo Goa Challengers to a 5-4 victory over Dabang Delhi TTC. Meanwhile, Trishal Surapureddy and Shreya Dhar’s singles win secured a 5-4 victory for Jaipur Patriots against PBG Pune Jaguars.

Final scores:

Kolkata ThunderBlades 8-7 Stanley’s Chennai Lions

Ankur Bhattacharjee bt. Kirill Gerassimenko 3-0 (11-4, 11-10, 11-7)

Selena Selvakumar lost to Fan Siqi 0-3 (8-11, 10-11, 6-11)

Ankur Bhattacharjee/Adriana Diaz lost to Payas Jain/Fan Siqi 1-2 (6-11, 4-11, 11-8)

Quadri Aruna bt. Payas Jain 2-1 (11-3, 8-11, 11-9)

Adriana Diaz bt. Poymantee Baisya 2-1 (11-6, 7-11, 11-6)

–IANS

bsk/