UTT | Ionescu and Ayhika shine in ThunderBlades’ win over Pipers
The HVR Kolkata ThunderBlades secured a 9-6 victory over the Ahmedabad APL Pipers in the Ultimate Table Tennis league, driven by a breakthrough performance from Eduard Ionescu. Meanwhile, the Dempo Goa Challengers continued their winning streak with a dominant 12-3 victory over Dabang Delhi.
Why it matters
This report covers the latest developments in India's professional table tennis league, highlighting individual player growth and team standings.
In his debut season of Ultimate Table Tennis, Eduard Ionescu struggled to find his footing. The 21-year-old Romanian had lost all three of his previous singles matches in Season 7.
But the World No. 47 finally found his rhythm on Friday, defeating Payas Jain 3-0 in the fourth and penultimate rubber to set up HVR Kolkata ThunderBlades’ 9-6 victory over Ahmedabad APL Pipers at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium.
Ionescu’s win left Ayhika Mukherjee needing just one game against Sofia Polcanova in the fifth and deciding match to seal the tie for the Kolkata outfit. Ayhika did the unthinkable to upset Sofia 2-1 and complete a memorable victory.
Earlier, Ayhika and Ankur Bhattacharjee defeated Sofia and Payas 2-1 in the mixed doubles to reduce the deficit to 4-5 before Ionescu scripted his maiden win.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in