The Ultimate Table Tennis returns after a four-year hiatus. The fourth edition of the league featuring some of the biggest names in the sport internationally got underway in Pune’s Balewadi Sports Complex on Thursday, 13th July 2023. The tournament is featuring six teams. Check All you need to know about the league.
Also Read: UTT 2023 begins Thursday after four-year absence, six teams to compete
The league made its debut in the year 2017. It had a successful run for three successive seasons until 2019. The 2020 edition was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It has taken three more years for the league to finally make its return.
Six teams – Bengaluru Smashers, Chennai Lions, Dabang Delhi TTC, Goa Challengers, Puneri Paltan TT and U Mumba TT – will compete for the trophy. Each team will have six players, four Indian and two foreign players.
Format
Each team plays five matches, which is called as ‘tie’. Each tie comprises Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Mixed Doubles, Men’s Singles and Women’s Singles – in this given order. One match is made up of three games and therefore, each tie will consist of 15 games in total.
The team can choose to play an Indian player or an International player for all fixtures except for the Mixed Doubles which is compulsorily one Indian player and one International player.
In UTT, winners of a tie is decided on the number of games won, not by matches won. The team to win eight of the 15 games across five matches wins the tie.
Squads
Bengaluru Smashers: Manika Batra, Sanil Shetty, Poymantee Baisya, Ankur Bhattacharjee, Kirill Gerassimenko (Kazakhstan) and Natalia Bajor (Poland)
Chennai Lions: Sharath Kamal, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Payas Jain, Prapti Sen, Yangzi Liu (Australia) and Benedikt Duda (Germany)
Dabang Delhi TTC: Sathiyan G, Sreeja Akula, Ayhika Mukherjee, Anirban Ghosh, Jon Persson (Sweden) and Barbora Balazova (Slovakia)
Goa Challengers: Harmeet Desai, T Reeth Rishya, Kwittwika Sinha Roy, Anthony Amalraj, Suthasini Sawettabut (Thailand) and Alvaro Robles (Spain)
Puneri Paltan: Manush Shah, Archana Kamath, Snehit SFR, Anusha Kutumbale, Omar Assar (Egypt) and Hana Matelova (Czech Republic)
U Mumba TT: Manav Thakkar, Diya Chitale, Mouma Das, Sudhanshu Grover, Lily Zhang (USA) and Aruna Quadri (Nigeria).
Schedule
The league round-robin will be from July 13 to July 27. The semifinals will be held on July 28 and 29 and the final will be held on July 30.
13th July: Puneri Paltan Table tennis v/s Chennai Lions
14th July: U Mumba TT v/s Bengaluru Smashers
15th July: Dabang Delhi TTC v/s Goa Challengers
16th July: Chennai Lions v/s U Mumba TT
17th July: Puneri Paltan Table Tennis v/s Goa Challengers
18th July: Bengaluru Smashers v/s Dabang Delhi TTC
19th July: Goa Challengers v/s U Mumba TT
20th July: Chennai Lions v/s Bengaluru Smashers
21st July: Dabang Delhi TTC v/s Puneri Paltan Table Tennis
22nd July: Goa Challengers v/s Chennai Lions
23rd July: Puneri Paltan Table Tennis v/s Bengaluru Smashers
24th July: Dabang Delhi TTC v/s U Mumba TT
25th July: Bengaluru Smashers v/s Goa Challengers
26th July: Chennai Smashers v/s Dabang Delhi TTC
27th July: U Mumba TT v/s Puneri Platan Table Tennis
28th July: Semi-final 1 (1st v/s 4th)
29th July: Semi-final 2 (2nd v/s 3rd)
30th July: FINAL
Where to watch Ultimate Table Tennis LIVE Streaming?
The matches can be watched LIVE on Sports 18 Channel. Fans can also watch it LIVE on Jio Cinema.
