Pickleball: Chennai Super Warriors qualify for playoffs with fourth straight win

New Delhi, Dec 4 (PTI) Chennai Super Warriors became the first team to seal a play-off berth by beating Bengaluru Blasters 4-2 in the Indian Pickleball League here on Thursday.

Chennai are leading the table with 12 points from four wins, followed by Hyderabad. Lucknow are sitting in third place with Gurgaon fourth. Bengaluru are fifth, and a winless Mumbai are placed at the bottom.

Bengaluru Blasters ran into the unbeaten Chennai Super Warriors with Phuc Huynh giving them the ideal launch by outlasting Aman Patel 15-13 in men's singles.

However, Chennai's pair of Mitchell Hargreaves and Harsh Mehta edged Huynh and Arjun Singh 15-12 in a gritty, point-for-point kitchen-line battle.

Roos van Reek then took charge, racing to a 10-5 lead before closing out a commanding 15-5 win -- her fourth straight in the league -- over Pei Chuan Kao.

Bengaluru snapped Chennai's unbeaten women's doubles run with a crisp 15-8 victory, levelling the tie at 2-2.

Chennai, however, were in no mood to let their perfect record slip. They burst ahead in the Grand Rally and closed out a dominant 21-10 finish to seal their fourth straight tie, 4-2.

Mehta and van Reek claimed the 'Players of the Tie' honours.

Looking to rebound from their previous day's defeats, Gurgaon and Lucknow kicked off Gameday 4 with victory on their mind. But the teams finally settled for a 3-3 draw.

The men's singles saw Arik Badami come out swinging, but Ryler DeHeart exploited the spaces Badami left in pursuit of winners, closing out a 15-5 victory to give Lucknow an early lead.

Gurgaon hit back with Stavya Bhasin and Jack Munro finding perfect harmony in the men's doubles for a 15-10 win, before Emilia Schmidt snapped back from Mihika Yadav's early baseline stunners to take the women's singles 15-8.

Schmidt and Naimi Mehta extended Gurgaon's advantage with a composed 15-12 win in the women's doubles, leaving Lucknow needing the Grand Rally to salvage a draw -- and they delivered.

Shelby Bates ignited the charge with two audacious winners, an around-the-net forehand followed by a backcourt lob in a decisive 21-12 finish. Tie drawn 3-3, DeHeart and Schmidt were named 'Players of the Tie'.

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