U Mumba pulls off a Houdini, sneaks into the summit clash
And never had U Mumba TT been able to breach the semifinal barrier in the first five editions. Both the firsts were achieved on Saturday, courtesy P.B. Abhinandh and Yashaswini Ghorpade – two of the most emerging paddlers on the Indian table tennis horizon.
With his back against the wall and trailing 0-2 against Vitor Ishiy, Abhinandh finally found an answer to Ishiy's serve and stretched the match into the deciding tie.
Yashaswini – the Bengaluru girl – then held her nerves and blanked Krittwika Sinha Roy 3-0 on the last point of the match.
After closing out the first two games, Yashaswini raced to a 10-6 lead, Krittwika finally getting trapped into Yashaswini's long-pimpled backhand.
But Krittwika then had a four-point spree. But the golden point saw Krittwika finally hit her backhand long to let the U Mumba camp burst into a wild bout of celebration.
Earlier, captain Harmeet Desai couldn't have gotten the Challengers off to a better start than a clean slate against Lilian Bardet. Despite Bardet having been his bogey player in UTT in the past, Harmeet went all out with his forehand winners to not let Bardet get into his game.
But Bernadette Szocs – the highest ranked paddler in UTT at No. 12 in women's – brought Goa back in the game by inflicting the first defeat on Zeng Jian.
When Szocs and Akash Pal – the doubles specialist who came up with stunning forehand side-spins close to his body – reduced the deficit to 4-5, U Mumbai was back in the match. Ishiy – the replacement player who came in for Tiago Apolonia towards the end of the league stage – then put Goa on the cusp of a win. But then started the great escape!
The result: U Mumba TT bt Dempo Goa Challengers 8-7 (Lilian Bardet lost to Harmeet Desai 8-11, 4-11, 10-11; Bernadette Szocs bt Zeng Jian 11-5, 11-9, 7-11; Szocs & Akash Pal bt Zeng & Desai 11-8, 11-8, 9-11; P.B. Abhinandh lost to Vitor Ishiy 6-11, 4-11, 11-9; Yashaswini Ghorpade bt Krittwika Sinha Roy 11-9, 11-9, 11-10).
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