MUMBAI: Shazé Challengers, the table tennis team owned by DAN Performance Group CEO Vivek Bhargava and co-sponsored by iProspect, were announced as the runners-up of Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) as Falcons TTC beat Shazé Challengers 14-9 to bag the inaugural UTT title.

The finale between Shazé Challengers and Falcons TTC on Sunday evening at the NSCI stadium in Mumbai proved to be an electrifying end to the inaugural season.

Some of the star players in Shazé Challengers include Han Ying (World Ranking 6), Petrissa Solja (World Ranking 13), Andrej Gacina (World Ranking 18), Li Ping (World Ranking 26) and Soumyajit Ghosh (Youngest National Champion and Qualifier for London Olympics) along with India coach A Muralidhara Rao and Foreign coach Elena Timina from Netherlands.

The team went from strength to strength at every stage of the competition, climbing up steadily to the finals. Shazé Challengers won four out of the five league matches and German paddler Han Ying remained undefeated all through the league till the last match.

Shazé Challengers quick statistics:

Total games: 181. Games won: 96. Total matches: 61. Matches won: 32

Supersavers: 186. Total ties: 7. Total points: 1629. Service points won: 833. Lucky points: 41.

Bhargava said, “We have some of the best Table Tennis players and coaches – both domestic and foreign – in the world. They have given it everything they have and shone throughout the league. "

Bhargava has been a medallist in the last two national tournaments in the 40-plus category. He has helped set up and run a table tennis academy at Elphinstone Road, Mumbai.