The Indian table tennis league, The Ultimate Table Tennis, is back with its fifth season, starting on August 22 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai. The season will continue until September 7.
This season will feature more teams than the previous one, with two new teams added, bringing the total to eight.
New UTT format
With the addition of two new teams, the competition format has been slightly adjusted. Teams are now divided into two groups of four for the league stage. Each team will compete in five ties—playing once against the three teams in their group and two randomly selected teams from the other group.
The top four teams on the points table will advance to the knockout stage, where the semi-finals will feature Team 1 vs Team 4 and Team 2 vs Team 3.
Each tie will consist of five matches—two men’s singles, two women’s singles, and one mixed doubles.
Players to watch
Top players such as World No. 10 Bernadette Szocs, World No. 16 Nina Mittelham, and Nigerian star World No. 19 Quadri Aruna will compete alongside leading Indian paddlers, including Achanta Sharath Kamal (WR 40) and Manika Batra (WR 28).
UTT 2024 will also showcase young Indian talents such as Yashaswini Ghorpade, Diya Chitale, Poymantee Baisya, Abhinandh PB, Jeet Chandra, and Yashansh Malik.
The franchise-based league will feature 48 players, including 16 internationals. Ties will start at 7:30 PM, with six double-headers scheduled, where the first tie kicks off at 5:00 PM, followed by the second at 7:30 PM. The semi-finals are set for September 5 and 6, with the final on September 7.
Who won season 4
The previous edition (season 4) of UTT, held in Pune, saw the Goa Challengers defeat the Lions in the final to become the latest champions.
UTT 2024 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
- Where to Watch
Fans can watch the UTT action live on Sports 18 and Jio Cinema.
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