UTT 2025: Patriots snare unsuspecting Lions inside empty EKA Arena

For at least three spectators, the Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) Season 6 fixture between Jaipur Patriots and Chennai Lions at a virtually empty EKA Arena on Tuesday was nothing more than a stop on their way to the Narendra Modi Stadium for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 final.

“We came here just to check what this (UTT) is about after watching an advertisement in a mall. We have the tickets for the IPL Final,” revealed one of them.

With one of the biggest events in the Indian cricket calendar taking place on the same day in the same city, the EKA Arena bore a sorry look when the tie ended 9-6 in Jaipur’s favour. 

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Contrary to Monday’s fixture between Kolkata Thunder Blades and the Lions, there wasn’t even a shadow of a cheering squad to complement the  dholwalas.

In the middle, the action could not have begun with a more dramatic men’s singles match. The Lions’ Kirill Gerassimenko was blanked for the second day in a row, but the loss to Kanak Jha would hurt more since all three games were decided on Golden Points. 

Jha, a five-time US national champion, edged his Kazakh opponent in terms of points won with the backhand – 11 to 5.

Sreeja Akula delivered the second clean sweep of the day, taking down Poymantee Baisya, a day after the latter’s encouraging performance against World No. 17 Adriana Diaz.

Jha and Sreeja sealed the tie by making it eight consecutive games for Jaipur with a 2-0 lead in the mixed doubles match against Payas Jain and China’s Fan Siqi.

Payas Jain’s straight-games win over Yashansh Malik and Fan’s 2-1 victory over Britt Eerland meant both teams finished the night with a total of 13 points, having played two ties.