Manika Batra in action© UTT
Star paddler Manika Batra survived the giant-slaying Ayhika Mukherjee to lead her team, PBG Bengaluru Smashers to 10-5 victory against Puneri Paltan Table Tennis in Ultimate Table Tennis 2024 at Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium on Monday. Manika lost the first game of her headline clash with Ayhika, falling into similar traps that had caught the league's highest-ranked player, Bernadette Szocs, last time around. However, the Asian and Commonwealth Games medallist retaliated in back-to-back games, winning the match 2-1.
The franchise-based league is promoted by Niraj Bajaj and Vita Dani under the auspices of the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI).
Puneri Paltan Table Tennis made UTT history even before the opening serve dropped. The team from Pune became the first ever to name all six of their players in the starting line-up, spread across five matches.
The tie started with 17-year-old Ankur Bhattacharjee of Puneri Paltan Table Tennis taking on PBG Bengaluru Smashers' Jeet Chandra. Both Ankur and Jeet had recorded outstanding sweeping wins in their previous clashes in UTT 2024 - Ankur over Lilian Bardet and Jeet over Sharath Kamal - but it was the teenager who emerged victorious this time, winning alternate games to claim the match 2-1.
Manika returned to the table for the mixed doubles round, partnering captain Alvaro Robles. Puneri Paltan Table Tennis, meanwhile, sent on Natalia Bajor and Anirban Ghosh, who stretched the PBG Bengaluru Smashers right until the end only to fall to a 2-1 defeat. Robles followed his prolific doubles display with a similar 2-1 win in the second men's singles of the tie over two-time Olympian Joao Monteiro.
With PBG Bengaluru Smashers needing just one point to win the tie, USA paddler Lily Zhang beat Puneri Paltan Table Tennis' sixth different player on the night, Yashini Sivashankar, to get her team over the line.
For their efforts, Manika and Zhang were named the Indian and Foreign Player of the Tie, respectively. Ankur, meanwhile, claimed the DafaNews Shot of the Tie honour.
Tuesday's only tie will see the U Mumba TT take on Ahmedabad SG Pipers at 19:30, with both teams looking for their second win in UTT 2024.
UTT 2024 is being broadcast live on Sports18 Khel and streamed online on JioCinema (India) and Facebook Live (Outside India). Tickets are available online on BookMyShow and offline at the box office near Gate no. 1 of the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a press release)