The second day of the CEAT Ultimate Table Tennis belonged to the Indians as Ayhika Mukherjee and Manav Thakkar stunned top paddlers during the RP-SG Mavericks and Empowerji Challengers contest on Friday.
While Ayhika set the tone for Mavericks’ victory by surprising World No. 20 Lee Ho Ching of Hong Kong in the opening rubber, rising star Manav overpowered the China-born Ukrainian Kou Lei, the World No. 33, to pull things level for Challengers.
In the other matches, Harmeet Desai stretched Tiago Apolonia before losing 11-10 in the final game, while local girl Divya Deshpande, making her UTT debut, gave the fans at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati sports complex plenty to cheer about despite going down to the seasoned Sabine Winter. Mavericks, though, had little trouble in winning the tie, with Winter sealing the deal by winning the opening game.
Ayhika, after losing the opening game, used her long pimples to upstage Ching. She also minimised her errors, keeping her more fancied opponent under pressure. Manav then registered probably the biggest victory of his career by not letting Lei get into any rhythm.
The results: RP-SG Mavericks bt Empowerji Challengers 13-8 (Ayhika Mukherjee bt Lee Ho Ching 4-11, 11-2, 11-5; Kou Lei lost to Manav Thakkar 4-11, 7-11, 11-10; Harmeet Desai & Doo Hoi Kem bt Arjun Ghosh & Lee Ho Ching 11-9, 11-8, 10-11; Mattias Karlsson bt Simon Gauzy 8-11, 11-7, 11-7; Doo Hoi Kem bt Georgina Pota 11-1, 11-8, 6-11; Harmeet lost to Tiago Apolonia 11-8, 6-11, 10-11; Sabine Winter bt Divya Deshpande 11-8, 11-9, 11-5.
Saturday’s schedule: Warriors vs Dabang Smashers, 7 p.m.