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
Come June, some of the world’s finest table tennis stars will descend on Indian soil for the much-awaited second season of Ultimate Table Tennis. The country’s first ever professional table tennis league was very well received by all the players, respective International Federations and audiences in its inaugural season.
Representative photo. AFP
Reflecting the excitement for the tournament among players, four of last year’s players- men’s world No 20 Aruna Quadri & world No 34 Kou Lei along with women’s world no. 22 Sofia Polcanova and world no. 72 Sabine Winter will return for the second edition. A few new signing have been made to the second season as well with the most notable players being men’s world no. 37 Alvaro Robles from Spain along with women’s world no. 20 Georgina Pota and world No 25 Matilda Ekholm who have previously been a part of Seamaster ITTF India Open. Sweden's Matilda Ekholm and Hungary's Georgina Pota had won the doubles title at Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour India Open in New Delhi
African Champion and one of the best offensive players on the table, Aruna Quadri, has had a great run in 2017 having won the Polish Open and achieved a World ranking of 20- the best in his career so far. He played for Oilmax Stag Yoddhas in the inaugural season where he went on to win a total of 198 points for his team. Oilmax Stag Yoddhas finished last season at fifth place.
Joining Aruna for the second edition of UTT is World No. 34 Kou Lei who plied his trade alongside Marcos Freitas for the Dabang Smashers T.T.C. Kou Lei recently won the Oman Fibre Optic International Open held in Muscat. He scored a total of 174 points during the first edition to help Dabang Smashers T.T.C reach third position in the league. Women’s world no. 22 Sofia Polcanova and world no. 72 Sabine Winter are back for the second season as well. They played alongside ace Indian paddler Sharath Kamal for RP-SG Mavericks last season and together scored 416 points for the team that finished at the bottom of the league table.
The six franchises for UTT are Dabang Smashers T.T.C., RP-SG Mavericks, DHFL Maharashtra United, Falcons TTC, Oilmax-Stag Yoddhas and Shaze Challengers. Falcons TTC emerged champions of the inaugural Ultimate Table Tennis.
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