Sanil-Szocs sparkle in UTT

Sanil Shetty had mixed fortunes in the Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) tie here today, giving defending champions Falcons TTC an early lead against Empowerji Challengers.

The 28-year-old lost his singles match 0-3 to France's Simon Gauzy but bounced back in the mixed doubles ,pairing with Bernadette Szocs, to upstage Manav Thakkar and Georgina Pota 11-4, 11-9, 11-8.

The Indo-Romanian pair, who won three of their last four matches, proved their superiority by pocketing the first game 11-4. Thakkar and Hungarian Pota put up a better show in the second but Shetty and Szocs kept things under control and not only won the game but went on to claim the third as well.

After the first three matches, Challengers were leading 6-3.

Earlier, another Indian player Divya Deshpande too from Challengers suffered a bug defeat.

World No. 30 Matilda Ekholm gave Falcons a winning start, defeating Deshpande 3-0 (11-9, 11-6, 11-7).

The Indian put up a fight in the first game but the left-handed Swede kept upping the ante when it mattered the most to extend her dominance in the next two games as well.

Challengers' captain and World No. 12 Gauzy levelled the scores with an emphatic 11-5, 11-3, 11-5 victory over Shetty. The 23-year-old Frenchman, the highest ranked player in the event, did not give much leeway to Shetty and sailed past him in all the three games.