Ultimate Table Tennis: Fixtures, squads and all you need to know about tournament's fourth edition

Jul 13, 2023 - 00:30

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Ultimate Table Tennis: Fixtures, squads and all you need to know about tournament's fourth edition

The Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) returns with its fourth season this week and is scheduled to be held at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Mahalunge-Balewadi in Pune from 13 to 30 July.

Some of the world’s top table tennis stars will compete in the franchise-based league.

UTT has been a game-changer for Indian table tennis since its inception in 2017 and as we gear up for the table tennis carnival, here is a complete guide to the UTT Season 4.

Franchisees and its owners:

Franchise: Bengaluru Smashers

Owned by: Punit Balan

Punit Balan has a multi-faceted personality as an entrepreneur, filmmaker, social worker, and sports enthusiast. He is the owner of Bengaluru Smashers. Besides heading the Balan Group—a company, which is valued at INR 3,500 crore, he also owns teams in various sporting leagues like badminton, tennis, Kho and handball league. Apart from investment in sports employment start-ups, he has been actively supporting various sportspersons.

Franchise: Chennai Lions

Owned by: Dr. Karishma Yadav and Adv. Harini Yadav

Dr. Karishma Yadav and Adv. Harini Yadav are young entrepreneurs venturing into table tennis. With this franchise, they aim to rediscover the brilliant game of table tennis from the grassroots and develop infrastructure in Tamil Nadu to further promote the game on a global scale. The franchise go into UTT Season 4 as defending champions and their prime focus will be to defend their crown.

Franchise: Goa Challengers

Owned by: Shrinivas Dempo and Vivek Bhargava.

Shrinivas Dempo is chairman of the renowned Dempo Group from Goa, while Vivek Bhargava is the CEO of the DAN Performance Group and together they aim to inculcate a culture of sports at the grassroots level and create globally competitive opportunities for future champions. Their team look forward to bringing their A game at UTT Season 4.

Franchise: Dabang Delhi TTC

Owned by: DOIT Sports Management

DOIT Sports Management, a company majorly in Business Services for the last 12 years, has created a buzz in the market in recent times and now aims to give table tennis a major push in India. Dabang Delhi TTC won the title in UTT Season 2 while finishing as a runner-up in UTT Season 3. With a competitive mindset, the franchise is prepared to go the distance to emerge victorious at UTT Season 4.

Franchise: Puneri Paltan Table Tennis

Owned by: InsureKot Sports Pvt. Ltd

Puneri Paltan Table Tennis will aim to reach new heights in UTT Season 4. The team is owned by InsureKot Sports Pvt. Ltd which is headed by Mr. Suresh Kotak, founder of Kotak Commodities. Aimed at promoting a sporting culture in India, they have teams in many leagues and have set their sights on promoting Table Tennis in India as well.

Franchise: U Mumba TT

Owned by: Unilazer Ventures Pvt. Ltd

U Mumba TT is owned by Unilazer Ventures Pvt. Ltd. – a company founded by Ronnie Screwvala who is a philanthropist and movie producer. Suhail Chandhok, a sports broadcaster and entrepreneur, has recently joined the team as their CEO. They also own the kabaddi league franchise U Mumba. Having finished as semi-finalists in UTT Season 3, the franchise envisions to build from that experience and unearth some young talent in the nation.

Squads:

Bengaluru Smashers

Coaches: Sachin Shetty, Vesna Ojstersek

Players: Manika Batra, Kirill Gerassimenko, Sanil Shetty, Natalia Bajor, Poymantee Baisya and Jeet Chandra.

Chennai Lions

Coaches: Somnath Ghosh, Jorg Bitzigeio

Players: Achanta Sharath Kamal, Yangzi Liu, Benedikt Duda, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Payas Jain and Prapti Sen

Goa Challengers

Coaches: Elena Timina, Parag Agrawal

Players: Suthasini Sawettabut, Harmeet Desai, Alvaro Robles, T Reeth Rishya, Krittwika Sinha Roy and Anthony Amalraj

Dabang Delhi TTC

Coaches: Slobodan Grujic, A. Muralidhara Rao

Players: Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Sreeja Akula, Barbora Balazova, Ayhika Mukherjee, Anirban Ghosh and Jon Persson

Puneri Paltan Table Tennis

Coaches: N Ravichandran, Zoltan Batorfi

Players: Omar Assar, Manush Shah, Archana Kamath, Snehit SFR, Anusha Kutumbale and Hana Matelova

U Mumba TT

Coaches: Anshul Garg, Francisco Santos

Players: Manav Thakkar, Lily Zhang, Aruna Quadri, Diya Chitale, Mouma Das and Sudhanshu Grove

Format and Rules

Format of play

1.a) Every team shall play five matches in a tie — Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Mixed Doubles, Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles in that order.

1.b) Each match shall comprise 3 games. Consequently, each tie shall comprise 15 games.

1.c) Each game shall have players competing with each other to score 11 points first, meaning in the event that scores are level at 10-all then the 11th point will be a Golden Point and shall decide the winner.

1.d) The winning team in a tie shall be decided by the number of total games won i.e. total team points won in the relevant tie, meaning a Team that wins 8 or more games out of the 15 games shall be termed as the winner of that respective tie.

1.e) No player can play more than 2 matches in a tie, including the mixed doubles match. No player can play more than 1 singles match in a tie. However, the same player can play the mixed doubles.

Tournament Format

1.a) The League Stage will see all franchisees competing with each other one time during the league phase and the franchise that wins eight or more games out of the 15 games in each Tie shall be the winner of that respective Tie.

1.b) Franchisees shall play all 5 matches and 15 games in a tie even if one franchise has secured the winning 8 franchise points in a tie in the League Stage. Each Game won by a franchise will account for a point and be added to their overall tally. League Table standing will be determined by the total franchise points or games won by each franchise in all League Stage Ties.

1.c) After the completion of the scheduled League Stage, there shall be Knock Out Stage concluding with the Final. The top four franchisees from the League Table in the Season will qualify for the Knock Out Stage.

1.e) The Knock Out Stage will comprise two semi-finals between the first placed franchise in the League Table playing the fourth-placed franchise and the second placed franchise playing the third-placed franchise.

Schedule

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