Bernadette Szocs showed why she is such a revered and feared player.
With a world ranking of 24, the highest-ranked player in this edition, the Romanian played a wonderful match against Zeng Jian to win 2-1 under immense pressure in the fifth and deciding singles match and seal the tie in Dempo Goa Challenger’s favour at 8-7 against HVR Kolkata ThunderBlades in the UTT 2026 at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium in Panaji, Goa on Monday.
With the victory, Goa competed its third-straight win. With the tie scores at six-each before the final match, Szocs displayed immense courage under the circumstances.
Standing at 6ft 2in, Goa’s Alvaro Robles moves with remarkable fluidity, and the ease with which he deals with short, low balls and lightning-fast exchanges close and behind the table is quite a marvel for a player of his height. His backhand, in particular, stands out for its variety in attack and the amount of spin he generates. All those qualities were on display in his 2-1 victory over Eduard Ionescu in the opening match of the tie.
Goa’s Alvaro Robles moves with remarkable fluidity, and the ease with which he deals with short, low balls and lightning-fast exchanges close and behind the table is quite a marvel for a player of his height. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
After her famous victory over Ahmedabad’s Manika Batra the other day, expectations were understandably high for Goa’s 16-year-old Syndrela Das against Ayhika Mukherjee in the second match. Finding Ayhika’s anti-spin rubber difficult to negotiate, the teenager fought hard but lost 1-2.
Goa suffered another setback in the mixed doubles as the pairing of Robles and Syndrela went down to Ankur Bhattacharjee and Ayhika. Kolkata edged the contest to take a slender 5-4 lead, and the reverse men’s singles encounter was billed as the Gen-Z battle between Abhinandh and Ankur, and it lived up to expectations. Abhinandh won the intense match 2-1 thereby levelling the tie at 6-each before Szocs showed her class.
Comments
Published on Jul 13, 2026