Goa Challengers, led by Harmeet Desai, will face Dabang Delhi in the final of the Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) 2024 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium on Saturday. The winner will become the first team to win two titles in the league.
In the semifinals, when Harmeet completed his 3-0 clean sweep against Bengaluru Smashers’s Jeet Chandra, the whole Goa dugout jumped out onto the playing area to embrace its skipper. The defending champion had just entered the final of the UTT for the second consecutive time.
Present in that group hug was debutant Mihai Bobocica. The paddler had played a crucial role in the semifinal after he handed Alvaro Robles his first defeat of the season.
“We are feeling great, we are really grateful to be in the final. On paper, we weren’t, let’s say, the best team. But, with a system and great team spirit, we know it’s possible to win the title. We believed all the time. Things weren’t going all our way in the group stage but we managed. That gave us confidence,” Bobocica told Sportstar ahead of the final.
Both finalists met each other in the group stage, and in that tie, Delhi came out triumphant. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Delhi’s skipper, had beaten Bobocica 2-1. The 37-year-old Italian rued his missed chances against the Indian.
“I was leading in the match, and even in the second game. If I’d won that, then I would have gotten more confidence going into the third game. And that would have, maybe, lowered Sathiyan’s confidence going into the mixed doubles, in which he played really well,” the two-time Olympian said.
After clinching the first game 11-8 against Sathiyan in that group stage meeting, Bobocica squandered a lead in the second game to concede it 9-11. He went on to lose the third game 9-11 as well. “My second game in the match against him was the turning point. They were coming after two losses. If I’d won the second game, then they (Delhi) probably wouldn’t have reached here,” he said with a laugh.
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His first time in India, Bobocica has had a topsy-turvy first season in the UTT. After a winning start against newcomers Jaipur Patriots’s Ronit Bhanja, the World No. 221 lost three closely contested matches on the trot – all bearing the same scoreline of 1-2.
He returned to winning ways against U Mumba’s Mannav Thakkar, before coming out with a brilliant victory in the semifinal.
Coming into the last-four stage, Goa Challengers had failed to convert a massive 75 per cent of its golden point chances. This is where the difference lies, he says ahead of the summit clash.
“We just have to be better in those couple of points, compared to our last meeting. There’s a really small margin between the two teams, I feel,” he said.
