Goa Challengers beat last season’s champions Chennai Lions 8-7 in a closely-contested final to win the Ultimate Table Tennis 2023 title at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune on Sunday. This was Goa Challengers' maiden Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) title.
Harmeet Desai, world No. 62, put Goa Challengers on track for a win with a 2-1 (6-11, 11-4, 11-8) win over Chennai Lions’ world No. 32 Benedikt Duda from Germany. This was Benedikt Duda’s first loss in the tournament.
In the second tie of the final, Chennai Lions’ Australian recruit Yangzi Liu, the world No. 30, beat world No. 39 Suthasini Sawettabut of Thailand 2-1 (6-11, 11-6, 11-5) to safeguard her unbeaten streak in UTT Season 4.
With scores tied at 3-3 after the first two ties, Indian table tennis legend Sharath Kamal combined with Yangzi Liu in the mixed doubles to help Chennai Lions take a 5-4 lead after winning the tie 2-1 (7-11, 9-11, 11-10). However, it all went downhill for Chennai Lions from there on out.
Sharath Kamal suffered an upset against world No. 46 Alvaro Robles of Spain 3-0 (11-8, 11-8, 11-10) as Goa Challengers roared back into the contest.
Up by 7-5 and needing just one more point to win, it was up to Reeth Tennison to drive home the victory against fellow Indian Sutirtha Mukherjee, a Tokyo Olympian. Sutirtha won the first two games 11-7, 11-10, to make it 7-7 but Reeth took the third game 11-6 under pressure to seal the title for Goa despite losing the match 2-1.
The last time these two sides met in UTT season 4, Chennai Lions came out victorious 11-4.
A total of 18 table tennis ties were played in UTT season 4 in a single-legged round-robin league format between six teams - Bengaluru Smashers, Chennai Lions, Dabang Delhi TTC, Goa Challengers, Puneri Paltan TT and U Mumba TT.
Dabang Delhi and Puneri Paltan made it to the semi-finals but lost to Goa Challengers and Chennai Lions, respectively.
The third edition of UTT, won by Chennai Lions, was played back in 2019. The inaugural edition in 2017 was won by Falcons TTC while Dabang Delhi TTC took home the trophy in 2018.
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