UTT: Sharath Kamal kicks off season 4 with bang as Chennai Lions beat Puneri Paltan

Pune, July 13 The Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) season four began with some exhilarating action as defending champions Chennai Lions started their title defence with a commanding victory over Puneri Paltan Table Tennis at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, here on Thursday.

Chennai Lions played brilliantly from the start of the tie and defeated Puneri Paltan Table Tennis by 10-5 team points to make a positive start in the tournament.

In the first match of the tie (Men's Singles), Chennai Lions' ace paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal beat Omar Assar by 2-1 to gain two valuable team points for his franchise.

The Indian paddler started the tie on a positive note as he defeated Omar 11-10, 9-11, 11-6 with his aggressive play and precise shots.

Chennai Lions' Yangzi Liu was up against Archana Kamath in the second match (Women's Singles) and won it by 2-1 to put her franchise ahead by 4-2 in the tie. The Australian paddler won the first two games by 11-5, 11-10 before losing the third game by 10-11 against Archana.

In the third match of the tie, Sharath and Yangzi faced the pair of Omar and Archana (Mixed Doubles). They registered a 3-0 victory as Chennai Lions extended their lead to 7-2 in the tie. The winning pair dominated the match from the start and won the three games by 11-5, 11-8, and 11-2, respectively.

Puneri Paltan Table Tennis' Manush Shah put up a good fight against Chennai Lions' Benedikt Duda. However, it wasn't enough to bring his franchise back in the tie as Benedikt won the match by 2-1 (11-9, 11-7, 7-11) and gave Chennai Lions an unassailable 9-3 lead.

In the last match of the tie, Sutirtha Mukherjee went up against Hana Matelova. Hana was the only paddler from Puneri Paltan Table Tennis to win a match as she defeated Sutirtha by 2-1 (11-6, 5-11, 11-2) in a dominating fashion.