Mumbai, After careful selection through the Player Draft, the Ultimate Table Tennis franchises on Wednesday picked 48 players, including 16 foreigners, who will be seen in action at the UTT 2024 to be held in Chennai from August 22 to August 7. September.
The eight teams will have six players each on their roster for this year's event.
This season has seen the addition of two new teams: Jaipur Patriots and Ahmedabad SG Pipers.
The Patriots made their presence felt by recruiting in-form Indian star and current World No. 25 Sreeja Akula, who recently became the first Indian to clinch a WTT Contender singles title.
The Ahmedabad team signed Manush Shah and then acquired the services of Romanian world No. 10 Bernadette Szocs.
“Today's Player Draft is a testament to the fact that some of the best players in the world now want to come play at UTT.
“This is the first time we have eight teams and we want to make it even bigger and better,” said UTT promoters Vita Dani and Niraj Bajaj.
Defending champions Goa Challengers, who had retained Indian star Harmeet Desai before the draft, picked Australia's Yangzi Liu along with young Indian paddlers Yashaswini Ghorpade and Sayali Wani.
Mihai Bobocica of Italy, who competed in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, will be their foreign male paddler.
The squads
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Ahmedabad SG Pipers: Manush Shah, Bernadette Szocs (Romania), Lilian Bardet (France), Reeth Tennison, Pritha Vartikar, Jash Modi.
Chennai Lions: Achanta Sharath Kamal, Sakura Mori (Japan), Jules Rolland (France), Poymantee Baisya, Mouma Das, Abhinandh PB.
Dabang Delhi TTC: Sathiyan G, Orawan Paranang (Thailand), Diya Chitale, Andreas Levenko (Austria), Yashansh Malik, Lakshita Narang.
Goa Challengers: Harmeet Desai, Yangzi Liu (Australia), Yashaswini Ghorpade, Sudhanshu Grover, Sayali Wani, Mihai Bobocica (Italy).
Jaipur Patriots: Sreeja Akula, Cho Seungmin (South Korea), Suthasini Sawettabut (Thailand), Snehit SFR, Ronit Bhanja, Moumita Dutta.
PBG Bengaluru Smashers: Manika Batra, Alvaro Robles (Spain), Lily Zhang (USA), Jeet Chandra, Taneesha Kotecha, Amalraj Anthony.
Puneri Paltan Table Tennis: Ayhika Mukherjee, Nina Mittelham (Germany), Joao Monteiro (Portugal), Ankur Bhattacharjee, Anirban Ghosh, Yashini Sivashankar.
U Mumba TT: Manav Thakkar, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Aruna Quadri (Nigeria), Akash Pal, Kavyasree Baskar, Maria Xiao (Spain).
The eight teams will have six players each on their roster for this year's event.
This season has seen the addition of two new teams: Jaipur Patriots and Ahmedabad SG Pipers.
The Patriots made their presence felt by recruiting in-form Indian star and current World No. 25 Sreeja Akula, who recently became the first Indian to clinch a WTT Contender singles title.
The Ahmedabad team signed Manush Shah and then acquired the services of Romanian world No. 10 Bernadette Szocs.
“Today's Player Draft is a testament to the fact that some of the best players in the world now want to come play at UTT.
“This is the first time we have eight teams and we want to make it even bigger and better,” said UTT promoters Vita Dani and Niraj Bajaj.
Defending champions Goa Challengers, who had retained Indian star Harmeet Desai before the draft, picked Australia's Yangzi Liu along with young Indian paddlers Yashaswini Ghorpade and Sayali Wani.
Mihai Bobocica of Italy, who competed in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, will be their foreign male paddler.
The squads
=========
Ahmedabad SG Pipers: Manush Shah, Bernadette Szocs (Romania), Lilian Bardet (France), Reeth Tennison, Pritha Vartikar, Jash Modi.
Chennai Lions: Achanta Sharath Kamal, Sakura Mori (Japan), Jules Rolland (France), Poymantee Baisya, Mouma Das, Abhinandh PB.
Dabang Delhi TTC: Sathiyan G, Orawan Paranang (Thailand), Diya Chitale, Andreas Levenko (Austria), Yashansh Malik, Lakshita Narang.
Goa Challengers: Harmeet Desai, Yangzi Liu (Australia), Yashaswini Ghorpade, Sudhanshu Grover, Sayali Wani, Mihai Bobocica (Italy).
Jaipur Patriots: Sreeja Akula, Cho Seungmin (South Korea), Suthasini Sawettabut (Thailand), Snehit SFR, Ronit Bhanja, Moumita Dutta.
PBG Bengaluru Smashers: Manika Batra, Alvaro Robles (Spain), Lily Zhang (USA), Jeet Chandra, Taneesha Kotecha, Amalraj Anthony.
Puneri Paltan Table Tennis: Ayhika Mukherjee, Nina Mittelham (Germany), Joao Monteiro (Portugal), Ankur Bhattacharjee, Anirban Ghosh, Yashini Sivashankar.
U Mumba TT: Manav Thakkar, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Aruna Quadri (Nigeria), Akash Pal, Kavyasree Baskar, Maria Xiao (Spain).
