Eight franchises including U Mumba TT to vie for glory

Defending champions Athlead Goa Challengers, previous winner Chennai Lions, U Mumba TT are among the eight franchises who will vie for glory in the Indian Oil sponsored Ultimate Table Tennis* (UTT) 2024 that is all set to get underway on Thursday 22 August, 2024 at the sprawling Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai.

In to its fifth edition of the expanded franchise-based league that is being promoted by Niraj Bajaj and Vita Dani under the auspices of the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) the same will witness 23 high-intensity ties including the much anticipated inaugural match between the reigning champions Goa Challengers against debutants Jaipur Patriots. Spanning over 17 days, the much awaited tourney will conclude with the grand finale scheduled on Saturday 7 September.

A total of 48 players, including 16 foreigners representing eight franchise, will be seen in action including a much-anticipated rematch between India’s ace paddler Manika Batra (PBG Bengaluru Smashers) and World No. 13 Bernadette Szocs (Ahmedabad SG Pipers). The two have faced off multiple times since their junior days, with Manika winning their last encounter in the Women’s team event at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

On the eve of the tourney the 29-year-old Manika, the most prominent face of the Women's game in the country who along with Sreeja Akula recently made history by becoming the first Indian paddlers to reach the Olympics Singles pre-quarterfinals in Paris, opinioned that the Indian table tennis is headed in the right direction thanks to the advent of the UTT tournament which attracts top players from across the world.

The new season will also witness the return of two legends - Achanta Sharath Kamal (Chennai Lions) and Quadri Aruna (U Mumba TT). As the highest-ranked male player in the league, World No. 19, Aruna of Nigeria will go head-to-head with Sharath, the top-ranked Indian male paddler. Their encounter is set to be one of the highlights of IndianOil UTT 2024.

Sharath too was elated with India's growth in table tennis, which culminated in several Olympic milestones and saw both Indian teams, Men and Women qualify for the Olympic Games in the team event for the first time. Our  Women counterparts, especially Manika and Sreeja (Akula) reaching the last 16 in the individual Singles event at Paris 2024 too augurs well for the popular indoor sports.

Nigerian great Quadri Aruna who expressed his delight at returning to UTT with U Mumba TT, attributed the above success to the huge spending into the sport of table tennis in India, which has resulted in Indian players being among the title contenders in most of the tournaments in the world.

24-year old Manav Thakkar, who will turn out for U Mumba TT for the third year in a row expressed that UTT has significantly bridged the gap between top-level players and emerging talents in India, while providing a platform for young athletes to compete and improve their skills. The world No. 59, Manav, a former Asian Games Bronze medallist  earlier had gave a good account of himself against  Wang Chuqin in the do-or-die contest in the team event against top-seeded People’s Republic of China in the round of 16 of Paris 2024 Olympics recently before losing in three hard fought games  (9-11, 6-11, 9-11) to his superior opponent.

 U Mumba CEO Suhail Chandhok was happy on inducting Asian Games Bronze medallist Sutirtha Mukherjee into his franchises earlier had expressed his happiness on how things worked out during the player’s draft last month and looked forward to their good show this time around. U Mumba TT will open their campaign against 2019 champions and wDabang Delhi T.T.C. in the fourth tie of the tourney on Saturday 24 August

Defending champions Athlead Goa Challengers, anchored by Harmeet Desai and featuring the nbeaten Yangzi Liu from UTT 2023, will aim to achieve what no team has done before—defend their title. Having qualified with a point margin his team went on to win the title at the expense of previous seasons champions Chennai Lions 8-7 in a closely-contested final for their maiden UTT crown at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune in 2023. Oozing confident he looked forward to this year expanded tourney and hope excel once again based on his team’s consistent record where they make it to the playoffs thrice in four seasons.

As per the organizers Jaipur Patriots and Ahmedabad SG Pipers will debut this season, taking the IndianOil UTT 2024 roster to eight teams for the first time since its inception. Further all participating teams will have six players and two coaches, competing in five league-stage ties. Each tie features five matches—(in this order) Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Mixed Doubles, Men’s Singles, and Women’s Singles—played over three games. The first team to win eight games secures the tie, while each game counts as a point toward the team’s total. The four teams with the most points at the end of the league stage will progress to the semi-finals.

Ultimate Table Tennis 2024 Squads:

Ahmedabad SG Pipers: Manush Shah, Bernadette Szocs (Romania), Lilian Bardet (France), Reeth Tennison, Pritha Vartikar, Jash Modi

Chennai Lions: Achanta Sharath Kamal, Sakura Mori (Japan), Jules Rolland (France), Poymantee Baisya, Mouma Das, Abhinandh PB

Dabang Delhi TTC: Sathiyan G, Orawan Paranang (Thailand), Diya Chitale, Andreas Levenko (Austria), Yashansh Malik, Lakshita Narang

Athlead Goa Challengers: Harmeet Desai, Yangzi Liu (Australia), Yashaswini Ghorpade, Sudhanshu Grover, Sayali Wani, Mihai Bobocica (Italy)

Jaipur Patriots: Cho Seungmin (South Korea), Suthasini Sawettabut (Thailand), Snehit SFR, Ronit Bhanja, Moumita Dutta, Nithyashree Mani

PBG Bengaluru Smashers: Manika Batra, Alvaro Robles (Spain), Lily Zhang (USA), Jeet Chandra, Taneesha Kotecha, Amalraj Anthony

Puneri Paltan Table Tennis: Ayhika Mukherjee, Natalia Bajor (Poland), Joao Monteiro (Portugal), Ankur Bhattacharjee, Anirban Ghosh, Yashini Sivashankar

U Mumba TT: Manav Thakkar, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Aruna Quadri (Nigeria), Akash Pal, Kavyasree Baskar, Maria Xiao (Spain)

 Ultimate Table Tennis 2024 Complete Schedule:

* About Ultimate Table Tennis:

Ultimate Table Tennis is India’s premier table tennis league and has been a game-changer for the sport in India since its inception in 2017. The franchise-based league is promoted by Niraj Bajaj and Vita Dani under the auspices of the Table Tennis Federation of India. With top athletes and coaches from India and the rest of the world forming the crux of the league, UTT has managed to become a truly global phenomenon and has witnessed the emergence of star Indian talent such as Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Manav Thakkar, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Manika Batra. PBG Bengaluru Smashers, Chennai Lions, Dabang Delhi TTC, Athlead Goa Challengers, Puneri Paltan Table Tennis, U Mumba TT, Ahmedabad SG Pipers and Jaipur Patriots are set to compete in the IndianOil UTT 2024, scheduled to be held in Chennai from 22 August to 7 September. The exciting action will also be broadcast live on Sports18 Khel and streamed on JioCinema in India and Facebook Live internationally.

Photo Group:  Key members of all the eight participating franchises including Manika Batra, Bernadette Szocs, Achanta Sharath Kamal and Quadri Aruna pose for a group photo on the eve of the IndianOil Ultimate Table Tennis 2024

Photo U Mumba TT Players: Manav Thakkar (Left) and Mario Xiao are among six players who will represent U Mumba TT franchise