Ultimate Table Tennis | Chennai Lions bounce back to beat Goa Challengers and enter final
Veteran Sharath Kamal helped Chennai Lions to bounce back from 1-5 to eventually win 8-7 in the semi-final against Goa Challengers and reach the finals. The Chennai side will face Dabang Delhi TTC, who had beaten U Mumba in the first semi-final, in the 2019 Ultimate Table Tennis final on August 11.
It was another entertainment-filled outing at this year's second semi-final of the ongoing Ultimate Table Tennis tournament that saw Chennai Lions take on Goa Challengers. An explosive display by Indian legend Sharath Kamal brought Chennai Lions back from the dead on Saturday as he earned himself and his team a date with Dabang Delhi in the final of the Ultimate Table Tennis.
The crowd at the Thayagraj Stadium in New Delhi saw Sharath Kamal lead his team to the final as he secured consecutive wins - first in the mixed doubles category and later in the men’s singles category – to give Chennai a shot at the title.
Chennai were trailing 1-5 in the tie against Goa and it as Kamal and Solia Petrissa blanked Goa's Anthony and Cheng I-Ching 3-0 to make it 4-5.
“We had a bad start to the tie but once we pushed ourselves in the mixed doubles, we were able to put pressure on Goa.Â
“I knew I had to win the match against Anthony so I just thought of taking it point by point. The first set was important but I lost the second and was angry,” Kamal told UTT's official website.
The final match between Madhurika Patkar and Archana Kamath was the deciding game and the latter won the first set to put Goa at an advantage. However, Patkar won two consecutive sets, the final with a golden point, to seal the tie with 8-7 win for her team.