UTT Season 4: Sharath Kamal, Manika Batra spearhead player draft
Ace paddler Quadri Aruna will spearhead a strong players line-up for Season 4 of Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) which will also feature Indian stars like Achanta Sharath Kamal, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra.
One of Africa’s greatest table tennis players, Aruna, who is currently ranked 12th in the world and played the first two seasons of UTT makes his return to India for a third time. Besides Aruna, World No. 32 Benedikt Duda of Germany, World No. 34 Omar Assar of Egypt, Alvaro Robles of Spain, who won a Doubles Silver at the 2019 World Championships will also be part of Season 4, scheduled to be held at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune from July 13-30.
USA’s Lily Zhang (WR24), Australia’s Yangzi Liu (WR32), Thailand’s Suthasini Sawettabut (WR33) and Barbora Balazova of Slovakia (WR44) will be the international women’s players in the draft pool.
Veteran paddler Sharath Kamal who holds the record of 10 nationals titles, Sathiyan who is India’s top-ranked men’s player at the moment (WR51) and World No. 39 Batra will headline the Indian line-up along with some of the promising young talents such as reigning national champion SSreeja Akula, who has just won back-to-back Nationals Titles, U-19 boys national title holder Payas Jain, Diya Chitale, S Fidel R Snehit and Ankur Bhattacharjee.
The franchise-based league is promoted by Niraj Bajaj and Vita Dani under the auspices of the Table Tennis Federation of India.The upcoming season will feature six teams: Bengaluru Smashers, Chennai Lions, Dabang Delhi TTC, Goa Challengers, Puneri Paltan Table Tennis and U Mumba TT.
After recently picking their coaches at the UTT Season 4 Coach Draft, each franchise will now look to build a strong six-member squad at the UTT Season 4 Player Draft to be held in Mumbai next month. From a pool of 40 available players, each team can choose two foreigners – one male and one female and four Indians – two male and two female. Every team has the right to retain one player from the previous season.
Players List
Foreign Players | |
Men | Women |
Quadri Aruna (NGR, WR12) | Lily Zhang (USA, WR24) |
Kirill Gerassimenko (KAZ, WR54) | Suthasini Sawettabut (THA, WR33) |
Benedikt Duda (GER, WR32) | Natalia Bajor (POL, WR54) |
Jon Persson (SWE, WR50) | Barbora Balazova (SVK, WR44) |
Alvaro Robles (ESP, WR43) | Hana Matelova (CZE, WR53) |
Omar Assar (EGY, WR34) | Yangzi Liu (AUS, WR32) |
Indian Players | |
Men | Women |
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran | Sreeja Akula |
Manush Shah | Sutirtha Mukherjee |
Harmeet Desai | Diya Chitale |
Manav Thakkar | Reeth Rishya |
Achanta Sharath Kamal | Ayhika Mukherjee |
Sanil Shetty | Manika Batra |
Snehit SFR | Moumita Dutta |
Anirban Ghosh | Anusha Kutumbale |
Sudhanshu Grover | Archana Kamath |
Jeet Chandra | Poymantee Baisya |
Ronit Bhanja | Mouma Das |
Anthony Amalraj | Takeme Sarkar |
Payas Jain | Prapti Sen |
Ankur Bhattacharjee | Krittwika Sinha Roy |
Latest News
- Indian Sports Calendar May 2024: Major events to look forward to this month
- Prime Table Tennis Season 2: SpinXttreme clinches Championship with win over Clippers in finals
- Indian Sports Calendar April 2024: Events to watch in final week
- List of Indian athletes who have already secured qualification for Paris Olympics 2024
- Prime Table Tennis Season 2 set to kickstart as young stars gear up for action
Editor Picks
- Indian Sports Calendar May 2024: Major events to look forward to this month
- List of Indian athletes who have already secured qualification for Paris Olympics 2024
- India's Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula bow out of ITTF World Cup 2024 from group stages
- ITTF Singles World Cup 2024 Macao: Updated schedule, fixtures, results, live streaming details
- 'I want to enter top 10 in the future,' TT sensation Sreeja Akula outlines her goal