Portuguese Francisco Santos and N. Ravichandran will coach Maharashtra United, in the upcoming edition, of the Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT), to start from June 14 to July 1.
A former Portuguese national player, Santos helped Portugal bag bronze medals, in both the singles and doubles, in the European Youth Championships. He then led Portugal to 2nd place in the European Championships, in 2017. He also guided Falcons TTC to the title in the inaugural edition of UTT, in 2017.
“We have seen what Ultimate Table Tennis has done to the sport and Maharashtra United’s campaign last season was impressive. With a crisper format this year, it will get exciting this season and I look forward to the player draft, and then the season,” Santos said.
Meanwhile, Ravichandran became a name to reckon during his stint with the National team, from 2013-2017. He was a part of the Indian team that won three gold, seven silver and seven bronze medals at the 2015 Commonwealth TT Championships.
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He also managed the women’s doubles team of Mouma Das/Manika Batra and the men’s doubles team of Anthony Amalraj/G Sathiyan, that won a bronze medal at the 2016 Czech Open and 2016 Bulgaria Open, respectively. Ravichandran was managing the Dabang Smashers TTC last season.
Speaking about joining forces with Santos, he said: “Along with Santos, our aim is to make Maharashtra United a consistent side, one that challenges every team for the ultimate trophy. It’s now time to put our heads together so we get the best possible team in player draft.”
“We are pleased to have Santos and Ravichandran on board. In the two, we have an ideal mix of international and domestic wisdom for our team, which will be critical going into player draft. Santos and Ravichandran are also capable of bringing out the best from the team and we look forward to working them to deliver a successful campaign this season,” Maharashtra United CEO, Gaurav Modwel, said.
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