While rains battered the windows of the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium, inside it, two-time champion Goa Challengers breezed past Dabang Delhi 8-2 to enter a third Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) final on Friday.
The league-stage fixture between the two franchises just a week back had seen Goa hand Delhi a 12-3 thumping. But the host didn’t need to play all 15 games this time. The first to win eight games would have entered the summit clash.
The journey to the magic number began with Alvaro Robles facing Youssef Abdelaziz in the opening rubber. In the commentary, former India international and UTT ambassador Sharath Kamal revealed that the original Delhi teamsheet had Sathiyan Gnanasekaran’s name against Robles. But it was scratched out and Abdelaziz was sent out.
Coming into this match, Robles had the most games (13) to his name amongst all the men’s singles players this edition. At the end of this fixture, he added three more to his tally. The Spaniard made the Egyptian sweat, evident by the number of times the latter had called in the sweeper.
“I feel amazing, helping my team. It was difficult, but it was important to start strong. I hope Bernie [Bernadette Szocs] continues the momentum,” Robles told the broadcast after the match, with his teammates requesting the 70-odd children in the crowd to stop their “Goa, Goa” chants for audibility’s sake.
Szocs, however, had an aberration of a match. She began well against Maria Xiao, recovering from her forehand corner being targeted to clinch the Golden Point. But Xiao fought back, kept the pressure on, and opened Delhi’s account in the tie. The third game saw a visibly frustrated Szocs, shouting something at her dugout while trailing 3-8. Xiao, meanwhile kept calm, and took a 2-1 win to get Delhi back into the tie.
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During the mid-game interview, Xiao admitted that her pairing with Sathiyan is good, but she was also wary of the opposition duo of Syndrela Das and Robles ahead of the mixed doubles match.
The pair of Syndrela-Robles completely outplayed the duo of Xiao-Sathiyan and sprinted to a 3-0 win, which meant Abhinandh P. B. just had to get one game off Sathiyan.
When the Tamil Nadu paddlers were warming up, Ricky Martin’s Un Dos Tres was playing inside the stadium. And Un (one) game was all Abhinandh needed.
At 5-5, Sathiyan took Delhi’s third and final TTR (Table Tennis Review). The first two taken by Abdelaziz were unsuccessful, and Sathiyan’s was too. This summed up Delhi’s evening. The 18-year-old Goa paddler had a 9-5 lead before his senior bagged four consecutive points. But Abhinandh kept his nerve to take the game as he led his teammates around the playing arena for a victory lap.
The Challengers will now watch on as U Mumba and Kolkata Thunder Blades play the second semifinal on Saturday.
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Published on Jul 24, 2026