Ionescu.
| Photo Credit: butterflyutt
In his debut season of Ultimate Table Tennis, Eduard Ionescu struggled to find his footing. The 21-year-old Romanian had lost all three of his previous singles matches in Season 7.
therFinding his rhythm
But the World No. 47 finally found his rhythm on Friday, defeating Payas Jain 3-0 in the fourth and penultimate rubber to set up HVR Kolkata ThunderBlades’ 9-6 victory over Ahmedabad APL Pipers at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium.
Ionescu’s win left Ayhika Mukherjee needing just one game against Sofia Polcanova in the fifth and deciding match to seal the tie for the Kolkata outfit. Ayhika did the unthinkable to upset Sofia 2-1 and complete a memorable victory.
Earlier, Ayhika and Ankur Bhattacharjee defeated Sofia and Payas 2-1 in the mixed doubles to reduce the deficit to 4-5 before Ionescu scripted his maiden win.
In the other contest, two-time champion Dempo Goa Challengers posted its fourth straight win, with a 12-3 triumph over Dabang Delhi.
The results:
HVR Kolkata ThunderBlades bt Ahmedabad APL Pipers 9-6
(Ankur Bhattacharjee lost to Adrien Rassenfose 11-10, 10-11, 10-11; Zeng Jian lost to Manika Batra 7-11, 11-6, 10-11; Ayhika Mukherjee & Ankur Bhattacharjee bt Sofia Polcanova & Payas Jain 11-9, 11-3, 4-11; Eduard Ionescu bt Payas Jain 11-7, 11-6, 11-7; Ayhika bt Sofia 8-11, 11-8, 11-3).
Dempo Goa Challengers bt Dabang Delhi 12-3
(Alvaro Robles bt G. Sathiyan 11-6, 11-6, 11-9; Syndrela Das bt Divyanshi Bhowmick 11-9, 10-11, 11-4; Alvaro & Syndrela bt Sathiyan & Maria Xiao 11-8, 11-9, 9-11; P. B. Abhinandh bt Youssef Abdelaziz 11-4, 11-10, 11-8; Bernadette Szocs bt Maria Xiao 11-5, 11-10, 10-11).
Published – July 17, 2026 11:22 pm IST
