Debutant Kolkata outwits Chennai Lions in UTT

AHEMEDABAD: India’s 18-year-old sensation Ankur Bhattacharjee stunned Olympian and World No 55 Kirill Gerassimenko–an opponent ten years and 104 spots ahead of him–with a sweeping 3-0 victory, as debutants Kolkata ThunderBlades opened their Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) Season 6 campaign with a thrilling 8-7 win over Stanley’s Chennai Lions.

With Indian stars clashing against international heavyweights across all four singles matches, the spotlight was firmly on Ankur, who stunned 28-year-old Gerassimenko 3-0 in the opener. Ankur’s dominance was clear from the start: his lethal backhand, statistically the most effective in the league last season, delivered nine winners in Game 1 alone. He edged a tense second game with a Golden Point and sealed the match with a clinical 11-7 finish, also securing the Indian Player of the Tie and Shot of the Tie honours.

Despite that early blow, Chennai struck back through World No 36 Fan Siqi, the league’s highest-valued player in the auction and only the second Chinese woman to compete in UTT.

Fan showed her class in a 3-0 win over National Games gold medallist Selena Selvakumar, who was returning to the league after six years. Chennai then claimed the mixed doubles through Fan and Payas Jain, who outplayed Ankur and Adriana Diaz in the first two games, though the Kolkata pair salvaged a game with a late surge led by Diaz’s spectacular back-to-back smashes.

Kolkata responded with a strong finish. In the fourth match, former World Youth No 1 Payas took a game off World No 27 Aruna Quadri, but the experienced Nigerian proved too steady in crunch moments, winning 2-1. That left it to Adriana Diaz, ranked 17 in the world, to close it out. Facing Poymantee Baisya, the Puerto Rican star took the decider 11-6 after an early 5-0 lead, securing the tie for the debutants.