The odds were firmly stacked against Dabang Delhi’s Maria Xiao when she walked out to face U Mumba TT’s Anusha Kutumbale in the fifth and deciding match of the Ultimate Table Tennis Season 7 fixture at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium here on Wednesday.

Moments earlier, Mumba’s Lilian Bardet had edged past G. Sathiyan of Delhi 2-1 in a fiercely contested singles match to hand the defending champion a 7-5 lead. With just one game needed from the final match to secure the tie, the advantage lay squarely on Mumba’s Anusha.

Anusha lost the first two keenly contested games, but she kept her hopes. Armed with a counter-attacking style, she won the game that mattered to give U Mumba its first win of the season with a tie score at 8-7.

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Mumba’s Manush Shah has not been at his best in this edition. If there has been one glaring weakness in his game, it has been a lack of consistency.

Against Youssef Abdelaziz in the opening match, Manush seldom displayed the patience or discipline needed to build points. Particularly in the opening game, he appeared eager to end rallies too quickly, going for ambitious winners before constructing the point. The resulting unforced errors prevented him from finding any rhythm and he lost the match 1-2.

Mumba’s Anna Hursey extended her unbeaten run in the singles with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Delhi’s Sutirtha Mukherjee, levelling the tie at 3-3.

A huge upset was registered in the third match. Manush found his attacking touch and Hursey kept within herself as the Mumba mixed doubles pair outwitted Delhi’s Sathiyan and Xiao as the momentum swing in Mumba’s favour at 5-4.

Published on Jul 15, 2026