‘A few key games didn’t go our way’ and we are out’

I played my last match in the third season of Ultimate Table tennis on Tuesday night. It was a disappointing end, losing 0-3 to Madhurika Patkar, who no doubt performed really well.

As you can imagine, we are also sad and upset that RP-SG Mavericks Kolkata didn’t make it to the playoffs. We were the semi-finalists last year and were quite confident of repeating that show, if not of going one step further.

We had a good team and had prepared well too. But unfortunately, the dice did not roll our way. A couple of close games went against us and that pulled the plug on our chances.

I guess it all began in the first tie itself, against Goa Challengers. We lost 4-11 and along with it our way in this amazing league. A similar fate awaited us against Puneri Paltan that hurt us badly. The format is so tough that it punishes you for every result that goes against you.

It’s unbelievable that we haven’t won a single tie this year.

Our last fixture against Chennai Lions more or less sums up our campaign. We needed a big one in the opening tie but Matilda Ekholm lost 0-3 and we couldn’t recover from that.

Matilda was our marquee player and we were counting on big wins from her in the league. She played superbly and did her bit in most matches but Tuesday wasn’t her night.

Sanil Shetty then lost 1-2 to Portugal's Tiago Apolonia and we struggled in the mixed doubles as well. I guess that’s when our campaign realistically ended. Benedikt Duda's 2-1 win over Sharath Kamal gave us some solace but it was too late.

It is definitely upsetting that we are out of the league but we have accepted it. I will admit that my performance was not as good as it was last season. But I gave it my best and tried really hard in each match.

Overall, being part of RP-SG Mavericks Kolkata was pretty satisfying, irrespective of the final result. The team management and everybody else involved supported us very well and were always there for us.

We will cherish the time spent together and all the games, even those that we didn’t win.

There is a lot to learn from the mistakes we have made. And we will incorporate all of them in our game individually, as well as for future tournaments.

(BVK Sports and Media)
(Manika Batra represented RP-SG Mavericks Kolkata in the UTT)