“Maybe, luck,” Goa Challengers coach Elena Timina smiled when asked what the secret was behind the side’s dominance.
But the two-time champion showed that its unbeaten record in the seventh edition of the Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) couldn’t be put down to just luck. Perhaps some of that team bonding Timina alluded to earlier helped as the host beat debutant UP Prometheans 10-5 in a league-stage fixture at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium in Panaji, Goa on Wednesday.
With the Challengers already in the semifinals and the Prometheans sent packing with a solitary triumphant tie to its credit in its first season, the winner between Dabang Delhi and Pune Jaguars on Thursday will complete the last-four of the 2026 iteration.
Goa’s sixth win on the trot began with Spaniard Alvaro Robles blanking Sudhanshu Grover. Anything long and the Indian was struggling. Numbers backed it too. Forty per cent of the time in the first game, Robles sent the ball long, with that region having the majority of the winners for the Goa paddler.
Soon after, Robles’ backhand winners were on display, prompting the designated dhols to jump into action after each point. And after wrapping up the facile match, Robles punched the air in direction of his two-year old son and wife in the crowd.
ALSO READ: Taneesha Kotecha upsets Hursey to seal semifinal spot for Kolkata Thunder Blades
Next up, the twiddling Sayali Wani had the tough test of facing World No. 24 Bernadette Szocs. The Indian was close to causing an upset and handing UP its first win of the tie. In the deciding third game, her joy was visible when she brought it back to 9-9, with the bench asking her to keep her calm. Next point, she hit a forehand wide and facepalmed herself with a smile before Szocs took the match.
Bernadette Szocs (left) and Abinandh P.B. (right) confirmed the result with victory over Swastika Ghosh and Ricardo Walther. | Photo Credit: UTT
Szocs then paired up with teenager Abhinandh P. B. and took the tie beyond doubt for Goa with a 3-0 win over Swastika Ghosh and Ricardo Walther in the mixed doubles match. Abhinandh, after looking out of sorts in the first game, seemed energised going forward and carried it to his singles match against Manav Thakkar.
The 18-year-old from Chennai has been dubbed as the ‘giant-slayer’ this year. Wins against the likes of Lilian Bardet, Ankur Bhattacharjee, Payas Jain, and Youssef Abdelaziz preceded this match. Abhinandh’s only loss came against Omar Assar, the highest-ranked male player of this year.
There were moments, during those long rallies, when a switched-on Abhinandh was close to adding Manav to his list of victims. But the India international made sure his last UTT 2026 match before the Commonwealth Championships would be a 2-1 win.
West Bengal youngster Syndrela Das played out a long 1-2 loss — the match had a 12-shot and a 14-shot rally — to Australia’s Yangzi Liu, but the rising crescendo of the dhols signalled that the Goa Challengers had finished the league stage firmly on top of the standings.
Comments
Published on Jul 22, 2026