The fifth season of the Ultimate Table Tennis will see defending champion Goa Challengers, and newcomer Jaipur Patriots kickstart the table tennis extravaganza.
A total of 23 ties will take place at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai from August 22 to September 7.
This time, eight teams, as opposed to six last season, will compete for the coveted title.
World No. 10 Bernadette Szocs, World No. 16 Nina Mittelham, and Nigerian legend, World No. 19 Quadri Aruna, are among the world’s top players participating. They will be joined by star Indian paddlers, including Achanta Sharath Kamal (WR 40) and Manika Batra (WR 28).
UTT 2024 will also feature promising Indian talents such as Yashaswini Ghorpade, Diya Chitale, Poymantee Baisya, Abhinandh PB, Jeet Chandra, and Yashansh Malik.
The franchise-based league will see a total of 48 players, including 16 internationals, in action. The ties will begin at 7:30 PM, with six double-headers scheduled, where the first tie will start at 5:00 PM, followed by the second at 7:30 PM. The semifinals are scheduled for September 5 and 6, with the final on September 7.
Debutant team Ahmedabad SG Pipers will launch its campaign against Puneri Paltan Table Tennis on Day two, while Chennai Lions will face PBG Bengaluru Smashers in an exciting southern derby later the same day. Dabang Delhi TTC and U Mumba TT will play their opening tie against each other on August 24.
New format explained:
The addition of two new teams this season introduces a slight change in the competition format. Teams will be divided into two groups of four for the league stage. Each team will play five ties—once against the three teams in their group and two randomly chosen teams from the other group.
The top four teams on the points table will progress to the knockout stage, with the semi-finals featuring Team No. 1 vs Team No. 4 and Team No. 2 vs Team No. 3.
Each tie will consist of five matches—two men’s singles, two women’s singles, and one mixed doubles.
Squads:
Ahmedabad SG Pipers: Bernadette Szocs (Romania), Jash Modi, Lilian Bardet (FRA), Manush Shah, Prita Vartikar, Reeth Rishya
Chennai Lions: Abhinandh PB, Jules Roland (FRA), Mouma Das, Poymantee Baisya, Sakura Mori (JPN), Sharath Kamal
Dabang Delhi: Andreas Levenko (AUT), Diya Chitale, Lakshita Narang, Orawan Paranang (THA), Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Yashansh Malik
Bengaluru Smashers: Alvaro Robels (ESP), Amalraj Antony, Jeet Chandra, Lily Zhang, Manika Batra, Taneesha Kotecha
Goa Challengers: Harmeet Desai, Mihai Bobocica, Sayali Wani, Sudhanshu Grover, Yangzi Liu (AUS), Yashaswini Ghorpade
Jaipur Patriots: Cho Seungmin (KOR), Moumita Dutta, Ronit Bhanja, Snehit, Suthasini Saveettabut, Nithyashree Mani
Puneri Paltan: Ankur Bhattacharjee, Anirban Ghosh, Ayhika Mukherjee, Joao Monteiro (POR), Natalia Bajor (POL), Yashini Sivasankar
UMumba: Akash Pal, Kavyasree Baskar, Manav Thakkar, Maria Xiao (ESP), Quadri Aruna (NIG), Sutirtha Mukherjee
Streaming/telecast information:
UTT 2024 will be broadcast live on Sports18 and streamed on JioCinema.
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