U Mumba beat Puneri Paltan 9-6 in UTT

U Mumba produced an all-round display to beat Puneri Paltan 9-6 in the Ultimate Table Tennis league here on Saturday.

The win enabled U Mumba to jump to the top of the points table.

India's Sutirtha Mukherjee and Manav Thakkar and their foreign stars, Kirill Gerassimenko (Kazakhstan) and Doo Hoi Kem (Hong Kong), comprehensively won their respective singles matches to leave Paltan gasping.

U Mumba suffered their only defeat in the mixed doubles contest as Manav and Hoi Kem lost to Chih-Yuan-Ayhika Mukherjee.

Sutirtha set the trend for the day, wiping out Ayhika's challenge (11-7 6-11 11-5) with her aggressive approach and putting U Mumba ahead.

Sutirtha won the first set with ease before Ayhika launched a comeback and levelled the scores in the second. In the decider, Sutirtha relied on speed and her jabs to force Ayhika into a series of errors.

Manav then consolidated U Mumba's lead, beating experienced Harmeet Desai 2-1 in the men's singles.

Manav, placed 156th in world rankings, did