Ultimate Table Tennis League 2018, Players draft, highlights: Sharath Kamal drafted by Yoddhas, Challengers get Simon Gauzy

Final list of players drafted in the second edition of the UTT:

Dabang Smashers T.T.C.: Sakura Mori, Masaki Yoshida, Manika Batra, Adriana Diaz, Archana Kamath, Sanish Ambekar, Cedric Nuytinck

RP-SG Mavericks: Doo Hoi Kem, Mattias Karlsson, Harmeet Desai, Kou Lei, Ayhika Mukherjee, Mouma Das, Siddhesh Pande, Sabine Winter

DHFL Maharashtra United: Kristian Karlsson, Elizabeta Samara, Anthony Amalraj, Madhurika Patkar, Joao Monteiro, Lily Zhang, Selena Selvakumar, Utkarsh Gupta

Oilmax-Stag Yoddhas: Chih Yuan Chuang, Sofia Polcanova, Sharath Kamal, Aruna Quadri, Hana Matelova, Pooja Sahasrabudhe, Sreeja Akula, Ravindra Kotiyan

Shaze Challengers: Lee Ho Ching, Georgina Pota, Simon Gauzy, Manav Thakar, Tiago Apolonia, Divya Deshpande, Arjun Ghosh, Prapti Sen

Falcons TTC: Bernadette Szocs, Matilda Ekholm, Liam Pitchford, Alvaro Robles, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Ronit Bhanja, Priyadarshini Das

Round 8 picks:

Maharashtra United select Utkarsh Gupta

RP-SG Maverics retain Sabine Winter of Germany, she is world no. 59 currently

Smashers select Belgium’s Cedric Nuytinck who is world no 40

Falcons draft in Priyadarshini Das

Yoddhas select Ravindra Kotiyan

Challengers with the final pick of the draft and they rope in Prapti Sen

Round 7 picks:

Yoddhas select Sreeja Akula

Challengers rope in Arjun Ghosh who played for Falcons last season

Maharashtra United draft in Selena Selvakumar who played for Yoddhas last season

RP-SG Maverics select youth player Siddhesh Pande

Smashers go for Sanish Ambekar

Falcons draft in Ronit Bhanja

Round 6 picks:

Falcons TTC retain current India No.1 Suthirtha Mukherjee

Smashers in young talent Archana Kamath

RP-SG Maverics rope in Indian veteran Mouma Das, she played for Challengers last season

Maharashtra United draft in young Lily Zhang of USA who is ranked 56 in the world

Challengers select new comer Divya Deshpande

Yoddhas rope in Pooja Sahasrabudhe

Round 5 picks:

RP-SG Maverics pick Indian youth player Ayhika Mukherjee

Maharashtra United decide to retain world no. 58 Joao Monteiro of Portugal

Challengers get Tiago Apolonia who played for Maverics last season. He is from Portugal and is currently ranked 37 in the world.

Yoddhas draft in world no 67 Hana Matelova of Czech Republic

Falcons rope in Alvaro Robles of Spain, the world no. 50.

Samshers draft in Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico, World No. 40 and the youngest Olympian

Round no 4 picks: 

Dabang Smashers pick Manika Barta, highest ranked Indian female player in the world

Falcons select Liam Pitchford of England, so he comes back to his previous franchise. He has been in very good form in the international arena of late

Yoddhas draft in Aruna Quadri of Nigeria. He is world no. 22 and in red hot form.

Challengers rope in Manav Thakkar, world no 2 in the junior circuit and a talent to watch out for. 

Maharashtra United pick Madhurika Patkar 

RP-SG Maverics draft in Kou Lei of Ukraine, world no. 35

Overlook at the teams after round 3:

Dabang Smashers T.T.C.: Sakura Mori, Masaki Yoshida 

RP-SG Mavericks: Doo Hoi Kem, Mattias Karlsson, Harmeet Desai,  

DHFL Maharashtra United: Kristian Karlsson, Elizabeta Samara, Anthony Amalraj 

Oilmax-Stag Yoddhas: Chih Yuan Chuang, Sofia Polcanova, Sharath Kamal 

Shaze Challengers: Lee Ho Ching, Georgina Pota, Simon Gauzy

Falcons TTC: Bernadette Szocs, Matilda Ekholm

Round 3 picks:

Challengers pick the highest ranked player in the UTT – Simon Gauzy of France. He is world No 8 right now

Yoddhas pick India’s ace paddler Sharath Kamal, 8 time National champion and Commonwealth Gold medallist

Falcons TTC draft in Matilda Ekholm who played her first senior championship at the age of 23. She is world no 27

Dabang Smashers rope in Masaki Yoshida of Japan, she is world No. 36

RP-SG Maverics select Harmeet Desai, the second Indian to be drafted today

Maharashtra United select Anthony Amalraj

Round 2 picks:

Maharashtra United select Elizabeta Samara (Romania, World No. 22) as their 2nd pick

RP-SG Maverics pick World No 31 Mattias Karlsson of Sweden

Dabang Smashere pick Sakura Mori of Japan, she is World No 19 and India Open double crown winner

Falcons have their first pick as Bernadette Szocs of Romania

Yoddhas pick Sofia Polcanova of Austria, she is the No 1 in her country and 21 in the world

Challengers select Georgina Pota of Germany, she is currently world no 31.

Round two selection procedure: 

Maharashtra United will go first, RP-SG Maverics will go 2nd, Dabang Smashers will go third, Falcons will go fourth, Yoddhas will go fifth in selection, Challengers will be sixth.

Round 1 selection

Challengers pick Lee Ho Ching as their first pick. He played for Falcons last season.

RP-SG Maverics pick Doo Hoi Kem of Hing Kong, she is world no. 11 right now

Yoddhas pick Chih Yuan Chuang  of Chinese Taipei,  he is no. 18 in the world

Maharashtra United pick world no. 31 Kristian Karlsson from Sweden

Round one selection procedure:

Challengers will be the first team to pick in round one, RP-SG Maverics will go second, Yoddhas will go third, Maharashtra United will go fourth in selection.

Retained payers

Sanil Shetty became first ever retained player of Ultimate Table Tennis who was retained by defending champions Falcons TTC and the second one was Sathiyan Gnanasekaran who was picked up by Dabang Smashers.

Here is a list of franchises:

Dabang Smashers T.T.C. 

RP-SG Mavericks, 

DHFL Maharashtra United, 

Falcons TTC, 

Oilmax-Stag Yoddhas

Shaze Challengers

Falcons TTC

A franchise has to pick 8 players:

2 foreign male

2 Foreign female

1 Indian male senior,

1 Indian male youth 

1 Indian female senior

1 Indian female youth

The players who are back

Almost 50 percent of the players have re-signed from the last season. The prominent names being: Aruna Quadri, Kou Lei, Sofia Polcanova, Sabine Winter.

Female (Youth) players:

1. Archana Kamath, 2. Sreeja Akula, 3. Ayhika Mukherjee, 4. Moumita Dutta, 5. Selena Selvakumar, 6. Prapti Sen, 7. Priyadarshini Das

Female (Senior) players: 

1. Manika Batra, 2. Mouma Das, 3. Madhurika Patkar, 4. Pooja Sahasrabudhe, 5. Suthirtha Mukherjee, 6. Ankita Das, 7. Divya Deshpande

Indian Male (Youth) players: 

1. Manav Thakkar, 2. Ronit Bhanja, 3. Jeet Chandra, 4. Siddhesh Pande, 5. Utkarsh Gupta, 6. Sanish Ambekar, 7. Ravindra Kotiyan

Indian Male (Senior) players: 

1. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, 2. Soumyajit Ghosh, 3. Harmeet Desai, 4. Sharath Kamal Achanta, 5. Sanil Shetty, 6. Amalraj Anthony, 7. Arjun Ghosh

Here is a list of female foreign players that are a part of the draft

1. Doo Hoi Kem (Hong Kong, World No. 11), 2. Lee Ho Ching (Hong Kong, World No. 13), 3. Sakura Mori (Japan, World No. 19), 4. Sofia Polcanova (Austria, World No. 21), 5. Elizabeta Samara (Romania, World No. 22), 6. Bernadette Szocs (Romania, World No. 27) 7. Georgina Pota (Hungary, World No. 31), 8. Matilda Ekholm (Sweden, World No. 37), 9. Adriana Diaz (Puerto Rico, World No. 40), 10. Lily Zhang (USA, World No. 56),   11. Sabine Winter (Germany, World No. 59), 12. Hana Matelova (Czech Republic, World No. 67),

Here is a list of male foreign players in the draft:

1. Simon Gauzy (France, World No. 8), 2. Kristian Karlsson (Sweden, World No. 17), 3. Chih Yuan Chuang (Chinese Taipei, World No. 18), 4. Aruna Quadri (Nigeria, World No. 22), 5. Mattias Karlsson (Sweden, World No. 31), 6. Kou Lei (Ukraine, World No.35), 7. Masaki Yoshida (Japan, World No.36), 8. Tiago Apolonia (Portugal, World No.37), 9. Cedric Nuytinck (Belgium, World No.38), 10. Alvaro Robles (Spain, World No. 50), 11. Liam Pitchford (England, World No. 53) 12. Joao Monteiro (Portugal, World No. 55)