Patriots oust Pipers, inch closer to the semifinal

Jaipur Patriots secure must-win victory against Ahmedabad SG Pipers in controversial UTT match, eliminating Pipers from semifinal race.

After having started its campaign with a miserable scoreline against Dabang Delhi TTC in the tournament-opener last week, not only was the penultimate league round match against Ahmedabad SG Pipers a must-win for Jaipur Patriots but it also had to log a double-digit score to stay in the hunt for a place in the knockouts in the Ultimate Table Tennis’ sixth edition.

The paddlers in pink did just that. Not only did it reverse the scoreline of the loss against Delhi with an 11-4 win but the controversy-marred match also resulted in the Ahmedabad outfit being the first to be eliminated from the race to the semifinals.

While Kanak Jha and Britt Earland’s clean sweeps against debutant Divyansh Srivastava and Giorgia Piccolin, respectively, had all but sealed the fate of the match, the match turned out to be a controversial affair with Ricardo Walther and Jeet Chandra involved in a heated argument over net-call.

At 4-3 in the first game, Jeet caught the ball in his hands despite the umpires not calling it let but Walther agreed with the net-ball call. Trailing 8-10, Jeet came up with a deceptive ace down-the-line with Walther appealing for a net-call despite having been beaten on the turn. While Jeet left it to the umpires, his opponent insisted on replays – knowing that the review system isn’t available in UTT.

The umpires awarded Jeet the point and when Walther declined to take to the table even yellow-carded him. Rattled with the call, Walther failed to get his act together and lost the game and the tie. But the players buried the hatchet with a handshake at the end of the tie and the match!

The results: Jaipur Patriots bt Ahmedabad SG Pipers 11-4 (Kanak Jha bt Divyansh Srivastava 11-10, 11-8, 11-6; Britt Eerland bt Giorgia Piccolin 11-7, 11-5, 11-10; Eerland & Jeet Chandra lost to Ayhika Mukherjee & Ricardo Walther 8-11, 11-9, 7-11; Chandra bt Walther 11-10, 9-11, 11-9; Sreeja Akula bt Ayhika Mukherjee 8-11, 11-7, 11-6).

U Mumba TT bt Chennai Lions 9-6 (Lilian Bardet bt Kirill Gerassimenko 11-6, 7-11, 11-3; Yashawini Ghorpade bt Fan Siqi 11-5, 6-11, 11-10; Bernadette Szocs & Akash Pal bt Fan & Payas Jain 11-4, 11-3, 8-11; Akash Pal lost to Payas Jain 5-11, 8-11, 4-11; Szocs bt Poymantee Baisya 11-8, 11-6, 11-3).