Mumbai: Promising young Indian paddler Udit Sachdev played a pivotal role in the final of the UTT Mumbai Super League, helping Team Ace claim the crown here at the NSCI halls here late on Sunday night. Udit, who has been one of the stand-out players this season, proved to be the trump player once again, emerging victorious in both his matches and winning six crucial points to help Aces to a narrow 14-13 victory over Century Warriors.
Senhora D’Souza started the victory march for Ace, beating Divya Deshpande in the opening match of the tie 2-1 (6-11, 11-9, 11-10). But her good work was undone as Jignesh Rahatwal and Chinmay Somaiya lost the next two matches. Jignesh went down to Mandar Hardikar 0-3 (5-11, 4-11, 5-11) in the men’s single clash while Chinmay capitulated to Havish Asrani 0-3 ( 7-11,9-11,6-11) in the junior boys’ category. This saw them concede a 2-7 lead to Warriors.
Udit and Rajesh Singh got them back into the contest with a dominating 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-9) victory over Sameer Bhate and Dhruv Shah in the doubles category (veterans and cadet). Pearl Amalsadiwala then beat Aditi Sinha 2-1 (9-11, 11-10, 11-8) in the junior girls match to bring down the margin to just a solitary point.
But last year’s runners-up failed to continue the momentum and surrendered the advantage after their senior mixed doubles pair of Jignesh Rahatwal & Senhora D’Souza lost to Mandar Hardikar & Divya Deshpande 0-3 (8-11, 9-11, 8-11).
With their backs against the wall, it was Udit who delivered another crucial performance, beating Dhruv Shah 3-0 (11-5, 11-9, 11-7) in the cadet category.
Trailing 10-11 in the tie, Chinmay joined hands with Pearl Amalsadiwala in the junior mixed doubles category and overcame Havish Asrani and Aditi Sinha 2-1 (11-6, 10-11, 11-10) to take the tie into the last match. With the scores levelled at 12-12, Rajesh Singh showed nerves of steel and beat Sameer Bhate 2-1 (11-10, 3-11, 11-6) to help Ace win the nail-biting encounter.