Sutirtha Seals Thrilling Win for Dabang Delhi in UTT

The tie began with the two overseas singles fixtures. Egypt's Youssef Abdelaziz recovered from losing the opening game to defeat Romania's Eduard Ionescu 2-1, giving Delhi the early edge. Kolkata hit back immediately through Singapore's Zeng Jian, who edged Spain's Maria Xiao in a closely fought three-game contest to restore parity.

Delhi regained the initiative in the mixed doubles as Sathiyan and Maria Xiao defeated Ankur Bhattacharjee and Zeng Jian 2-1, ensuring the former champions carried a slender lead into the closing stages of the tie.

The momentum, however, shifted dramatically in the men's singles. Roared on by the crowd, Ankur produced one of the biggest upsets of the season by defeating Sathiyan 3-0. The youngster rallied from 3-9 down to snatch the opening game on Golden Point before dominating the second. Sathiyan forced another Golden Point in the third, but Ankur held his nerve again to complete an impressive straight-games victory, leaving Kolkata needing just one more game to clinch the tie.

With Delhi under immense pressure, Sutirtha rose to the occasion. She recovered from an early deficit to take the opening game 11-6, then dominated the second 11-2. Carrying the momentum into the third, she closed out an 11-7 victory over Ayhika to seal an 8-7 triumph for her side.

For her decisive performance, Sutirtha was named the Indian Player of the Tie, while Ankur Bhattacharjee claimed both the Player of the Tie and Shot of the Tie awards. Singapore's Zeng Jian received the Foreign Player of the Tie honour.

Earlier in the day, U Mumba TT continued their impressive run in the Dream UTT Juniors competition with a 7-2 victory over PBG Pune Jaguars, while Dempo Goa Challengers edged UP Prometheans 5-4, handing the latter their first defeat of the campaign.