Unity is the strength of UMumba: Diya Chitale

UMumba`s Diya Chitale

UMumba have enjoyed the perfect start to the franchise-based Ultimate Table Tennis Season 4 with two-out-of-two wins in their opening encounters at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune.

In their first fixture, UMumba rallied to beat Bengaluru Smashers 10-5. UMumba's 2018 Commonwealth Games silver medallist Aruna Quadri of Nigeria lost the first singles match 1-2 to Kirill Gerassimenko after which Bengaluru's Manika Batra beat UMumba's Diya Chitale 2-1. With the team scores reading 4-2 in favour of Bengaluru, UMumba registered a comeback in the mixed doubles rubber with former World No. 1 in the U-18 category, Manav Thakkar, and 2011 Pan American Games bronze medal-winner, Lily Zhang, beating Batra and Gerassimenko 2-1. Thakkar carried his form into the fourth rubber, blanking Sanil Shetty 3-0 in the men's singles contest. In the last rubber, Zhang beat Natalia Bajor 3-0 to give UMumba a famous come-from-behind win.

UMumba's Manav Thakkar

In their second match, UMumba got the better of the Chennai Lions 8-7. Quadri beat India's two-time Asian Games gold medallist Achanta Sharath Kamal 3-0 to give UMumba the early lead. Zhang then beat Sutirtha Mukherjee 2-1 to extend UMumba's lead after which Thakkar and Zhang got together to beat Sharath and Yangzi Liu 2-1 in the mixed doubles rubber. Thakkar however, lost in the fourth rubber to Chennai's Benedikt Duda 0-3. With the team scores now reading a close 7-5 in favour of UMumba, it was down to the last women's singles match between UMumba's Diya Chitale and Chennai's Yangzi Liu. And though national doubles champion Chitale went down to Liu 1-2, she picked up the crucial one point to ensure UMumba eventually prevailed 8-7.

Teanager Chitale, 19, attributes UMumba's consistency to their team spirit. "Our team spirit is very good. The 'U' in UMumba stands for united. Unity is the strength of our team. Aruna [33 years old] and Lily [27] have a lot of experience and they are continuously helping us, especially me, being the youngest in the team, I'm learning a lot from the senior players," Chitale told mid-day.com.

Thakkar, 23, echoed his teammate's sentiments. "We've had the perfect start to this season and our positive team spirit has worked wonders. Everybody in the team is fighting hard and giving their best. In the first match [v Smashers] we were down 2-4 but we came back so well. The experienced Aruna and Lily are guiding us and we hope to carry on this momentum and take the UTT trophy home," said Thakkar.

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