Chennai: Delhi Dabang’s Sathiyan G played out of his skin to steal a golden victory from U Mumba in the Ultimate Table Tennis, held in New Delhi, Monday.
World No. 24, the highest-ranked men’s player in the tournament, first paired up with Romania’s Bernadette Szocs to clinch two points in the Mixed Doubles before overcoming a valiant Manav Thakkar in the reverse Men’s Singles 3-0.
Sathiyan needed to invoke golden points to get the better of the young Manav in the first two sets. The last set for him came much easier which meant that Delhi had won the tie in the fourth clash itself as they had already taken 3 points in their earlier matches, with their Swedish import Jon Persson cornering 2 points and Szocs 1. In the fifth and final game, U Mumba’s Sutirtha Mukherjee beat Krittwika Sinha Roy 2-1 to reduce the overall deficit.
The reverse Men’s Singles saw two of India’s finest players, one an established star in Sathiyan and the other a rising one, Manav Thakkar, dish out a stunning spectacle. The game literally went neck and neck, apart from the time when Manav grabbed 3 straight points from 2-2. Eventually, Sathiyan took the set on golden point.
The second set too was equally close, this time none of them managing to ever take more than a single point lead. Sathiyan saved two golden points to score a memorable win.