Ultimate Table Tennis: Falcons outplay Mavericks

Table tennis’ first club-based league got off to a rollicking start at the Nehru Indoor Stadium hereon Thursday with Par Gerell’s Falcons TTC edging A Sharath Kamal’s RP-SG Mavericks by winning 15 games to 12.

It was indeed a new beginning for the sport. The format was new as so were the scores. The score line focussed on the number of games than on the sets, the time limit between each serve being 10 seconds, the elimination of a ‘time out’ and more.

The faster format of the game looked to enthral the sparse enthusiastic crowd but the players were almost given multiple ‘warnings’ for exceeding the time limits on service games.

The league was kicked off by Chennai’s chess ace Vishwanathan Anand who was tested with his racquet skills. He later unveiled the trophy in the presence of the league promoters and the six club captains.

It was the captains - Chennai boy Sharath and Gerell who set the league rolling by playing the first game. Sharath looked all at bay in the first game and conceded the game rather meekly before emerging stronger in the second. But Gerell dished out an exemplary attacking game in the third as Falcons went 2-1 up at the end of the first game.

Mavericks immediately came back on level terms with Sabine Winter proving too hot for Sutirtha Mukherjee. Winter’s exemplary placements were the difference between the two players as Sutirtha struggled to find her attacking fore. Mavericks went ahead by one game when Winter blanked the Indian 3-0 in the second tie.

Although the Falcons’ mixed doubles (Indian/foreign) pair of Lee Ho Ching and Sanil Shetty took two games in the third tie, it was the Mavericks who lead the scoreboard at 5-4 at the end of three matches. The mixed doubles was Sharath’s last appearance of the day, as he and Safia Polcanova lost the plot in the third game of the third tie.

Mavericks held the lead at 7-5 the end of four matches when Austrian Stefan Fegerl outsmarted Liam Pitchford 2-1.

The fifth game proved the game changer as Falcons snatched the lead at 8-7 when China’s Wu Yang drubbed Winter 3-0. Winter looked out of sorts as she had no answer to Yang’s different style of play. The Chinese’s defensive skills was the talk of the town as Winter struggled to cope with Yang’s style of play.

Getting the momentum they required it was Sanil Shetty who brought up the big upset of the day when he beat Portugal’s Tiago Apolonia 2-1 in the sixth tie. Shetty was on top of his game and never allowed Apolonia to dominate. He attacked at will and a plethora of unforced errors from the foreign player did not good either to his cause.

Mavericks never recovered from Winters’ and Apolonia’s loss and teenager Archana Kamath was staring down the barrel with a huge ask of beating in the in-form Yang for Maverick’s to stage a comeback. However, as expected, Archana had no answers to Yang as she went down 3-0 as Falcons stretched their lead to 13-8.

Gerell, coming back for his second match, sealed it for his team in the penultimate match at 15-9. Polcanova took the last three games against Ho Ching but it was too little too late for Mavericks as Falcons dominated the opening day to triumph with the final score line reading 15-12.