Mumbai : Day 2 of the Dream UTT Juniors table tennis tournament showcased the competitive spirit of young paddlers as three closely-fought encounters produced narrow victories. Pune Jaguars, Kolkata Thunder Blades, and Jaipur Patriots emerged victorious in nail-biting contests that went down to the wire.
The Jaguars’ Atharva Nawarange gave his side the lead after winning the first match 2-1 (11-8, 11-10, 9-11) against Prateek Tulsani in the Boys Singles encounter. U Mumba then made a comeback in the Mixed Doubles match after etching a 2-1 win. The duo of Prateek and Ananya Muralidharan defeated Atharva and Tushti Sood (11-6, 8-11, 11-6). In a thrilling Girls Singles contest that went right down to the Golden Point, the Jaguars’ Tushti won 2-1 (11-10, 7-11, 11-10) against Ananya in an electrifying encounter to hand her side a dramatic victory.
In the second clash, the Kolkata ThunderBlades won 5-4 against the Ahmedabad SG Pipers. Kolkata’s Ritvik Gupta was on a roll in his Boys Singles match against Abheek Kashyap as he clinched a 3-0 (11-9, 11-6, 11-3) victory. The Mixed Doubles clash saw Ahmedabad emerging victorious after Abheek and Mouboni Chatterjee won 2-1 (11-7, 11-6, 10-11) against Ritvik and Swara Karmakar. In the Girls Singles, Mouboni defeated Swara 2-1 (11-9, 8-11, 11-5).
The third clash of the day witnessed Jaipur Patriots clinching a 6-3 win against Dabang Delhi. In the Boys Singles, Patriots’ Trishal Surapureddy suffered a 1-2 (9-11, 11-9, 7-11) defeat against Akash Rajavelu. But the Jaipur team made a stunning comeback with a 2-1 (11-4, 11-9, 8-11) victory in the Mixed Doubles game. Trishal and Shreya Dhar won against Akash and Dhaani Jain. Later, in the Girls Singles game, Shreya won 3-0 (11-10, 11-10, 11-1) against Dhaani to help her side take away the victory.
