Ahmedabad, June 12 (IANS) U Mumba TT secured the fourth and final semifinal spot with a 10-5 win over Dabang Delhi TTC in the Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) Season 6 here on Thursday. While the defeat ended Delhi’s four-tie winning run, the Season 2 champions still finished top of the league table with 44 points.

Both teams wore black armbands and observed a minute’s silence before the start of the match to pay respect to the victims of the Ahmedabad plane crash tragedy.

Lilian Bardet gave U Mumba TT the perfect start, defeating Sathiyan Gnanasekaran 2-1 in the opening singles rubber. After edging a close first game 11-10, Bardet dropped the second 4-11 but responded strongly with an 11-4 win in the decider. Bernadette Szocs followed it up with a 2-1 win over Diya Chitale. Chitale took the first game 11-3, but Szocs levelled with a narrow 11-10 Golden Point win and closed out the match 11-8.

The momentum carried into the mixed doubles, where Szocs partnered with Akash Pal to beat Izaac Quek and Diya Chitale in the opening game, confirming U Mumba’s place in the semifinals. Delhi, however, bounced back, winning the remaining two games and, subsequently, the match.

Abhinandh PB added two more points for U Mumba with a 2-1 win over Singapore’s Izaac Quek. Abhinandh, in his first appearance of the season, started strong, taking the first two games, before Izaac pulled one back with an 11-7 win, enough to take Dabang Delhi to the top of the table.

In the final rubber, Yashaswini Ghorpade defeated her World Youth Championships 2023 teammate Suhana Saini 3-0, winning two tight games on Golden Point before closing the match 11-3.

Szocs picked up the double honours of the Foreign Player and Shot of the Tie, while Yashaswini was named the Indian Player of the Tie.

Dabang Delhi will now face Jaipur Patriots in the first semifinal while reigning champions Dempo Goa Challengers will take on U Mumba TT in the second. The winners of the respective ties will compete in the Grand Finale on June 15.

Staged under the aegis of the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) and promoted by Niraj Bajaj and Vita Dani, Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) continues to grow as a premier professional league. All matches this season are broadcast live on Star Sports Khel and Star Sports 2 Tamil and streamed on JioHotstar.

Final scores:

U Mumba TT 10-5 Dabang Delhi TTC

Lilian Bardet bt Sathiyan Gnanasekaran 2-1 (11-10, 4-11, 11-4)

Bernadette Szocs bt Diya Chitale 2-1 (3-11, 11-10, 11-8)

Akash Pal/Bernadette Szocs lost to Izaak Quek/Diya Chitale 1-2 (11-5, 7-11, 5-11)

Abhinandh PB bt Izaac Quek 2-1 (11-4, 11-9, 7-11)

Yashaswini Ghorpade bt Suhana Saini 3-0 (11-10, 11-10, 11-3)

–IANS

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