In his first season of Ultimate Table Tennis, Eduard Ionescu had lost his opening three singles matches. The 21-year-old Romanian finally secured his initial victory on Friday, beating Payas Jain 3-0 in the fourth rubber to help HVR Kolkata ThunderBlades defeat Ahmedabad APL Pipers 9-6 at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium. Ionescu’s result left Ayhika Mukherjee requiring one more game against Sofia Polcanova in the deciding fifth match. She achieved the upset with a 2-1 win. Earlier, Ayhika and Ankur Bhattacharjee had beaten Sofia and Payas 2-1 in mixed doubles to narrow the gap to 4-5. In the second match, Dempo Goa Challengers recorded their fourth consecutive victory by overwhelming Dabang Delhi 12-3.
