Dhruv powers Warriors into finals of MSL table tennis tourney

Paddler Dhruv Shah came up with a brilliant performance to guide Century Warriors into the finals of the UTT Mumbai Super League table tennis tournament here Sunday.

Dhruv sizzled in both his matches to lead Warriors to comfortable 14-9 win over King Pong to set up a thrilling final clash with last year's runners-up, Ace.

In the opening match, two of India's best female players, Divya Deshpande and Madhurika Patkar, clashed. Patkar came out victorious 2-1 (10-11, 11-7, 11-8) to give King Pong the early lead.

Mandar Hardikar won the next match after he recorded a dominating 3-0 (11-8, 11-7, 11-10) victory over Bhavitavya Shah in the men's singles to give Warriors a 4-2 lead.

Havish Asrani lost to Shivam Das 1-2 (11-3, 2-11, 8-11) in the junior boy's event allowing King Pong to reduce the gap.

With the scores tied, Dhruv Shah then teamed up with Sameer Bhate in the doubles (veterans and cadet) category and registered a 3-0 (11-7,11-7,11-4) victory over the duo of Ravi Shah and Hriday Deshpande to surge ahead.

Warriors lost the next two matches after Aditi Sinha went down to Vidhi Sinha 1-2 (11-8,3-11,4-11) in the junior girl's competition and in the mixed doubles encounter their pair of Mandar Hardikar and Divya Deshpandecapitulated to Bhavitavya Shah and Madhurika Patkar 1-2 (5-11,9-11,11-9).

With two consecutive wins, King Pong narrowed the gap by a solitary point and set the tie up for an exciting finish.

However, they could not capitalize and Dhruv once again proved to be the game changer and picked up an all important 3-0 (11-6,11-7,11-10) win over Hriday Deshpande in the cadet category to take Warriors to 13 points.

With just a point needed to march into the finals, Havish Asrani and Aditi Sinha went down 2-11 in the opening game of the mix doubles (jr. boys & girls) against the team of Shivam Das & Vidhi Sinha, but roared back to win the next one 11-9 to seal the tie with a game and match remaining.

In the other semifinal, led by superb performance by junior and cadet duo of Chinmay Somaiya and Udit Sachdev, Ace eked out a narrow 14-13 victory over West Coast Rangers to advance into the summit clash.