UTT 2024: Goa Challengers beats Dabang Delhi to lift consecutive titles

If one was to inaugurate a ‘Two-time Ultimate Table Tennis champions’ club, Athlead Goa Challengers would be the only franchise dropping its business card at the registration desk.

As if it wasn’t already difficult to reclaim the title, Harmeet Desai and Co. accomplished the same in successive editions, beating Dabang Delhi TTC on Saturday at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai.

The Challengers clearly did their homework. The side tweaked their order from the last time they clashed with Dabang in 2024 to have Harmeet get the ball rolling from left to right against Sathiyan Gnanasekaran instead of Mihai Bobocica.

The local lad Sathiyan, spurred on by a noisy Chennai crowd, took the first game with great panache. However, Dabang’s excitement turned out to be merely fleeting as Harmeet was a different person altogether from the second game.

The unforced errors reduced to a bare minimum and at one point, it seemed one was watching the Harmeet from 2023, who had famously destroyed China’s Xiang Peng at the WTT Contender quarterfinal in Lagos. Being well acquainted with Sathiyan’s playing style since the age of 10, Harmeet targeted his backhand side to induce mistakes.

The image of Harmeet arching back to shift his weight onto the left leg before sending in a scorching forehand topspinner is one that is bound to stay with the spectators for quite some time.

Revenge is a dish served cold. And Orawan Paranang of Dabang would tell you how it tastes. The Thai paddler, who broke Liu’s 100 per cent win record in the UTT earlier this season, was on the receiving end this time around.

In the first game, Orawan was left searching for the Australian’s secret sauce but failed miserably as she dug herself a 11-2-sized hole.

Orawan, celebrating her 28th birthday, didn’t seem to have invited Lady Luck to the party as she not only lost the golden point in the second game but also fell only two points short in the third game to hand the defender a clean sweep.

By then the writing was already on the wall for Challengers. For Diya Chitale, who had been in incredible form in the lead-up to the final having dropped just one game in her last five outings, was nursing an injury in her left ankle.

Liu returned with Harmeet in the mixed doubles round to add salt to Dabang’s wounds. Although it turned out to be a neck-and-neck affair, the Challengers duo ended up emerging 2-1 on top, Liu hammering in the final nail with a forehand chop block.

It left Bobocica with the simple task of winning a solitary game. And the Italian stallion, as they call him, decided to not make his team wait further as he galloped to the finish.