Puneri Paltan goes down fighting against the roaring lions from Chennai

Chennai Lions got their first win of the third season of the Ultimate Table Tennis as they had it easy against the Puneri Paltan Table Tennis team. After a defeat in their first game, a completely different Chennai Lions side turned up on Sunday for the match against the Puneri Paltan.

On the other hand, Puneri Paltan came here on the back of a win against the defending champions, Dabang Delhi. But, the Chennai Lion's roar was surely louder than the orange lion from Pune.

The final scoreline read an emphatic win for Chennai as the team in yellow won 10 games to 5.

The first match was the Women's singles which was between Petrissa Solja of Chennai and Ayhika Mukherjee of Pune. The first game saw Ayhika Mukherjee put up a great fight against World no.26. She almost threatened to take the game away, as the game was dragged till the golden point. Petrissa locked the first game with the golden point, and had it easy against Ayhika in the next two games.

Fresh from her Commonwealth Championship victory, Ayhika had raced to a 5-2 lead against the Rio Olympics silver medalist. However, Petrissa was quick to revive her game and went on to lead the game 10-8. Ayhika managed to defend two game points before Petrissa got the final point and took the lead for the Chennai Lions. The next two games went relatively easy for Petrissa. She won both and the Chennai Lions took a 3-0 lead.

In the next match, which was the Men's Singles, another medalist from the Commonwealth Championship, Harmeet Desai was seen locking horns with the Portuguese player Tiago Apolonia. Harmeet was the better player in the first game as he cruised to an 8-11 win. However, the Portuguese made a good comeback, winning the next two games 11-10 and 11-8. This saw Chennai Lions extending their lead to 5-1.

Paltan's mixed doubles pair Sabine Winter and Harmeet Desai in action

Next up was the Mixed Doubles. This match too went Chennai's way. The Chennai players Sharath and Petrissa walked over Harmeet and Sabine. They won all three games, 11-7, 11-7 and 11-6. These games confirmed the win for the Chennai Lions as they now had an unassailable lead of 8 games to 1 with two games to go.

In the game that followed, which was the second Men's singles which saw Paltan's Chuang Chih Yuan beat Chennai's Sharath Kamal 2-1. The first two games went in Chuang's favour, with scores of 5-11 and 10-11. However, Sharath came back very strong in the last game, defeating Chuang 11-3, to extend Lion's lead.

The final game of the day saw Sabine Winter go up against Madhurika Patkar. The German won the match 2-1 in the second women's singles.

Final Results:

Women's Singles:

Petrissa Solja bt Ayhika Mukherjee - 3-0 (11-10,11-6, 11-8)

Men's Singles:

Tiago Apolonia bt Harmeet Desai - 2-1 (8-11, 11-10, 11-7)

Mixed Doubles:

Sharath Kamal - Petrissa Solja bt Harmeet Desai- Sabine Winter - 3-0 (11-7, 11-7, 11-6)

Men's Singles:

Sharath Kamal lost to Chuang Chih Yuan - 1-2 (5-11, 10-11, 11-3)

Women's Singles:

Madhurika Patkar lost to Sabine Winter - 1-2 (8-11, 11-5, 11-10)

Puneri Paltan's next match is against RP-SG Mavericks Kolkata on the 30th of July, Tuesday. Paltan currently occupies the second position on the points table. Winning the next match could propel the team to the top of the table.