The massive 13-8 victory helped Mavericks end the night on 37 points, just two adrift of leaders Smashers
Manika Batra
Gold Coast Commonwealth Games double gold medallist Manika Batra's heroics went in vain as RP-SG Mavericks outplayed table toppers Dabang Smasher in CEAT Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) at the Tyagaraj Stadium here on Wednesday. The massive 13-8 victory helped Mavericks end the night on 37 points, just two adrift of leaders Smashers.
Indian table tennis' poster girl, Manika came back from a game down to edge past World No.60 Sabine Winter of Germany 2-1 (4-11, 11-3, 11-7) in a thrilling encounter to help Smashers race to an early lead. Playing in front of her home crowd, Manika conceded the opening game in a rather meek fashion. But she made a strong comeback and fired in a total of 10 winners in the next two games to seal the match and send the fans into a thunderous applause.
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Skipper Harmeet Desai, however, drew level (3-3) for Mavericks in the next match with a prolific win over World No 27 Yoshida Masaki of Japan 2-1 (11-8, 10-11, 9-11). In the mixed doubles encounter, captain Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Sakura Mori recorded a pulsating 10-11, 11-9, 11-2 victory over the pair of Harmeet and Doo Hoi Kem to help Dabang snatch the lead back.
With Smashers leading 5-4 after three matches, Cedric Nuytinck further swelled the scoreline in their favour with a clear 2-1 (7-11,11-3,11-7) win over World No 33 Kou Lei. World No 13 Doo Hoi Kem brought the Mavericks right back into the tie with a dominating 3-0 victory over Sakura Mori.
With the home side trailing 7-8, it was down to Sathiyan to win a few points for his side. But Mattias Karlsson, the World No 18 from Sweden, proved too much for the Indian and underlined his authority, turning in a sterling performance to win 3-0 (11-7, 11-8, 11-8).
It proved to be Sathiyan's first singles defeat in the UTT. In the last encounter of the night, Mouma Das completed the domination with a convincing 2-1 (10-11, 11-8, 11-9) victory over World No 38 Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico.
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