Manika Batra Trumps Ayhika Mukherjee As Bengaluru Smashers Beat Puneri Paltan 10-5

Star paddler Manika Batra survived the giant-slaying Ayhika Mukherjee to lead her team, PBG Bengaluru Smashers to a 10-5 victory over Puneri Paltan Table Tennis in the Ultimate Table Tennis 2024 in Chennai on Monday.

Manika lost the first game of her headline clash with Ayhika, falling into similar traps that had caught the league's highest-ranked player, Bernadette Szocs, last time around.

However, the Asian and Commonwealth Games medallist won back-to-back games to win the match 2-1.

The tie started with 17-year-old Ankur Bhattacharjee of Puneri Paltan taking on PBG Bengaluru Smashers' Jeet Chandra. Both Ankur and Jeet had recorded outstanding wins in their previous clashes in UTT 2024 -- Ankur beat Lilian Bardet and Jeet overcame Sharath Kamal. But it was 16-year-old Ankur who emerged victorious, winning the opener 2-1.

Manika returned to the table for the mixed doubles tie partnering captain Alvaro Robles. Puneri Paltan Table Tennis, meanwhile, sent Natalia Bajor and Anirban Ghosh, who stretched the PBG Bengaluru Smashers right until the end only to fall to a 2-1 defeat.

Robles followed his prolific doubles display with an identical 2-1 win over two-time Olympian Joao Monteiro in the second men's singles tie.

With PBG Bengaluru Smashers needing just one point to win the contest, USA paddler Lily Zhang beat Puneri Paltan's Yashini Sivashankar to get her team over the line.

For their efforts, Manika and Zhang were named the Indian and Foreign Player of the Tie, respectively.