Ahmedabad, June 7 (IANS) Indian campaigner Jeet Chandra led from the front as Jaipur Patriots beat Ahmedabad SG Pipers in the Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) on Saturday. Jeet pulled off a stunning 2-1 upset win over World No. 34 and World Championships silver medalist Ricardo Walther, powering Jaipur to an 11-4 victory that sent them to the top of the table.

The tie opened with Jaipur Patriots’ Kanak Jha surviving a spirited debut from Divyansh Srivastava, edging the opener on Golden Point before closing out the next two games 11-8, 11-6.

Britt Eerland then doubled the lead with a composed 3-0 win over Giorgia Piccolin, sealing the third game with another Golden Point. Ahmedabad clawed two games back through Walther and Ayhika Mukherjee, who took the mixed doubles 2-1 over Jeet and Eerland.

Jeet returned to face Walther in the singles and delivered a sensational performance. He edged the German in the first game on Golden Point, dropped the second, but stormed back to take the decider 11-9—marking one of his biggest wins in UTT yet.

With the tie already in their hands, Sreeja Akula held off Ayhika Mukherjee in the final rubber, coming from a game down to win 2-1 and seal Jaipur’s dominant 11-4 triumph. For his standout display, Jeet picked up the Indian Player of the Tie, as well as the Shot of the Tie honours. Meanwhile, Eerland’s clean sweep over Piccolin saw her named the Foreign Player of the Tie.

At the UTT Juniors, U Mumba TT and Kolkata ThunderBlades booked their spots in the final with solid semifinal wins. Prateek Tulsani and Ananya Muralidharan starred for U Mumba in a 5-2 win over Jaipur Patriots, combining for a dominant doubles sweep to seal the deal. In the other tie, Kolkata’s Ritvik Gupta and Swara Karmakar delivered a clinical 5-3 victory over Dempo Goa Challengers, winning both their singles rubbers and contributing vital points in the doubles.

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 and will be broadcast live on Star Sports Khel and Star Sports 2 Tamil, and streamed on JioHotstar.

Final scores:

Jaipur Patriots 11-4 Ahmedabad SG Pipers

Kanak Jha bt. Divyansh Srivastava 3-0 (11-10, 11-8, 11-6)

Britt Eerland bt. Giorgia Piccolin 3-0 (11-7, 11-5, 11-10)

Jeet Chandra/Britt Eerland lost to Ricardo Walther/Ayhika Mukherjee 1-2 (8-11, 11-9, 7-11)

Jeet Chandra bt. Ricardo Walther 2-1 (11-10, 9-11, 11-9)

Sreeja Akula bt. Ayhika Mukherjee 2-1 (8-11, 11-7, 11-6)

–IANS

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