Ultimate Table Tennis 2023: Chennai Lions start title defence with win over Puneri Paltan TT

The defending champions won the tie by a 10-5 margin.

The Ultimate Table Tennis 2023 began with some exhilarating action as defending champions Chennai Lions began their title defence with a commanding victory against Puneri Paltan Table Tennis here at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Mahalunge-Balewadi in Pune on Thursday. 

Chennai Lions played brilliantly from the start of the tie and defeated Puneri Paltan Table Tennis by 10-5 team points to make a positive start in the tournament.

In the first match of the tie (Men's Singles), Chennai Lions' ace paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal beat Omar Assar by 2-1 to gain two valuable team points for his franchise. The Indian paddler started the tie on a positive note as he defeated Omar 11-10, 9-11, 11-6 in Game 1 with his aggressive play and precise shots. 

Chennai Lions' Yangzi Liu was up against Archana Kamath in the second match (Women's Singles) and won it by 2-1 to put her franchise ahead by 4-2 in the tie. The Australian paddler won the first two games by 11-5, 11-10 before losing the third game by 10-11 against Archana.

In the third match of the tie, Sharath/Yangzi faced Omar/Archana (Mixed Doubles) and registered a 3-0 victory as Chennai Lions took a 7-2 lead in the tie. The winning pair dominated the match from the start and won the three games by 11-5, 11-8, and 11-2, respectively.

Puneri Paltan Table Tennis' Manush Shah put up a good fight against Chennai Lions' Benedikt Duda. However, it wasn't enough to bring his franchise back in the tie as Benedikt won the match by 2-1 (11-9, 11-7, 7-11) and clinched the first tie of the Ultimate Table Tennis Season 4 by 9-3 for the defending champions.

In the last match of the tie, Sutirtha Mukherjee went up against Hana Matelova. Hana was the only paddler from Puneri Paltan Table Tennis to win a match as she defeated Sutirtha by 2-1 (11-6, 5-11, 11-2) in a dominating fashion.