UTT 2025: Dempo Goa Challengers’ semifinal spot almost confirmed after 12-3 win over Chennai Lions

As Dempo Goa Challengers captain Harmeet Desai came to the team bench after blanking Stanley’s Chennai Lions’ skipper Kirill Gerassimenko in the opening singles, he received a high-five from both the coaches and fellow teammates except one.

Krittwika Roy, his wife, gave him a pat on the back.

A little over an hour later, Roy completed a task worthy of a special celebration as she took down Fan Siqi, only the second Chinese player in the Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) league’s history.

Fan made several uncharacteristic errors, a microcosm of her team’s campaign.

Two-time champion Challengers crushed the Lions 12-3, the joint-highest margin of victory since the tournament switched to the 15-game format in 2019. The result all but assured Desai and Co. of a place in the Season 6 semifinals with 44 points while knocking out the Lions(29 points), who lost all five of their league-stage ties.

The Lions needed at least seven points from their final encounter to have a slight mathematical chance of making it to the top four.

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But the team in yellow’s performance on Monday was akin to the attendance at the EKA Arena in Ahmedabad, where hardly anyone showed up to watch the match.

Zeng Jian defeated Poymantee Baisya, saving a game point in the third. The Singaporean has dropped only one game in her five singles matches in the league stage.

Desai and Zeng also got their act together in mixed doubles a day after a shock loss to Ankur Bhattacharjee and Adriana Diaz of the Kolkata ThunderBlades.

Another big positive for the Challengers ahead of the knockout stage was the debut of Vitor Ishiy. The Brazilian, who replaced Tiago Apolonia after the Portuguese was ruled out of the rest of the tournament due to illness, came from a game down to beat Payas Jain.

The fact that Vitor’s inclusion was a decision taken on the morning of the match was evident from the back of his jersey, which did not have a name.

On Tuesday, the ThunderBlades will be up against home team Ahmedabad SG Pipers, and both teams will need a big result to keep their semifinal hopes alive.