By Kirti Patil
Pune: 2023: India’s ace paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal gave his team—defending champion Chennai Lions a perfect start in the IndianOil Ultimate Table Tennis Season 4. Which began with some exhilarating action. Chennai Lions began their title defence with a commanding victory against Puneri Paltan Table Tennis here at the Badminton all of Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Mahalunge-Balewadi on Thursday.
Chennai Lions played brilliantly from the start of the tie and defeated Puneri Paltan Table Tennis 10-5 team points to make a positive start in the tournament.
In the first match of the tie (Achanta Sharath Kamal beat Omar Assar 2-1 (11-10, 9-11, 11-6) to gain two valuable team points for his franchise. Sharath was aggressive and played precise shots in Game 1 and dominated thereon.
Chennai Lions’ Yangzi Liu of Australia was up against Archana Kamath in the second match (Women’s Singles) and won 2-1 (11-5, 11-10, 10-11) to put her franchise ahead 4-2 in the tie. The Australian paddler won the first two games 11-5, 11-10 before losing the third 0-11.
In the third match of the tie, Sharath/Yangzi faced Omar/Archana (Mixed Doubles) and registered an impressive 3-0 (11-5, 11-8, 11-2) victory as Chennai Lions took a 7-2 lead in the tie.
Puneri Paltan Table Tennis’ Manush Shah put up a good fight against Chennai Lions’ Benedikt Duda. However, it was not enough to bring his franchise back in the tie as Benedikt won the match 2-1 (11-9, 11-7, 7-11) and clinched the first tie of the IndianOil Ultimate Table Tennis Season 4 for the defending champions.
In the last match of the tie, Sutirtha Mukherjee went up against Hana Matelova. Hana was the only paddler from Puneri Paltan Table Tennis to win a match as she defeated Sutirtha 2-1 (11-6, 5-11, 11-2) in a dominating fashion.
