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Harmeet Desai and Yangzi Liu led from the front as Athlead Goa Challengers scripted history by becoming the first team to successfully defend their title with an 8-2 thrashing of 2018 champions Dabang Delhi TTC in a pulsating final of the Ultimate Table Tennis 2024 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium on Saturday.
Both Harmeet and Yangzi won their respective singles matches before clinching the mixed doubles to lay the foundation for the Athlead Goa Challengers' historic march to their second successive title. Harmeet was adjudged the Indian Player of the Tie, while Yangzi was chosen as the Foreign Player of the Tie. Yangzi, who went undefeated throughout the season, also took home the title of Most Valuable Player (MVP) female player of the league. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran was adjudged the MVP among the men. Alvaro Robles of PBG Bengaluru Smashers claimed the title of Super Server of the League. The award of Shot of the League went to Achanta Sharath Kamal, while the ACT Fibernet Fastest Rally of the League was handed to Lily Zhang and Yashini Sivashankar. It was the culmination of a dramatic season for the Athlead Goa Challengers. The defending champions had made it to the semi-final line-up by the skin of their teeth as they had to battle hard before somehow finishing the league stage at the fourth spot. However, they came out firing on all cylinders right from the start on Saturday's tittle clash, piling on the pressure on Dabang Delhi TTC. Harmeet handed the early advantage to the Athlead Goa Challengers with a 2-1 (6-11, 11-9, 11-6) win over Sathiyan Gnanasekaran in the first men's singles. Yangzi increased the lead for the defending champions by blanking Orawan Paranang 3-0 (11-2, 11-10, 11-9) in the first women's singles. It was sweet revenge for the star from Australia as she avenged her loss to Orawan during the league stage. Yangzi and Harmeet took the Athlead Goa Challengers within sniffing distance of their second successive title, edging out the Dabang Delhi TTC pair of Orawan and Sathiyan 2-1 (9-11, 11-8, 11-9) in a hard-fought mixed doubles clash. With the Goa-based franchise needing to win just one more game to take the title home, Mihai Bobocica completed the formalities by defeating Andreas Levenko 1-0 (11-7) in the second men's singles, which turned out to be the last game of the season. (ANI)
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