MUMBAI: Three-time Commonwealth Games (CWG) gold medallist Sharath Kamal Achanta is set for a new challenge in the second season of the Rs 3 crore CEAT Ultimate Table Tennis League (UTT), with the Yodhas swooping on him in the player draft.
The Yodhas clinched the eight-time national champion, a strong contender for gold in the upcoming CWG in Gold Coast, in round three, after first picking their foreign male and female players. They opted for Chuang Chih-Yuan (Chinese Taipei; World No 18) and Sofia Polcanova (Austria; World No 21) to return with a solid team.
Interestingly, the foreign women players were very much in demand, with the first seven choices out of 10, coming from that category.
Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) senior VP Rajeev Bodas credited the CEAT UTT for the rise in the rankings of Indian players over the past year. “We have seen players’ rankings rise by 15-16 spots. For the first time in the history of Indian table tennis, we even had a player who went on to become World No 1 (Manav Thakkar in under-18 category; picked by the Challengers). Now, the TTFI and our players are viewed with a lot more respect on the world stage,” he said.
“The CEAT UTT is the only league of this kind in the world and the TTFI is fully behind them, providing all assistance for the conduct of the league in a professional manner,” he added.
The six franchises had to pick four foreign and four Indians each from six different categories (Indian male seniors, Indian male youth, Indian female seniors, Indian female youth, foreign male and foreign female) to ensure an exciting set of matches in each tie. The CEAT UTT commences in Pune from 14 June.
The teams had the option of retaining one Indian player before the draft pick, and Falcons TTC and Dabang Smashers chose to hold on to Sanil Shetty and Gnanasekaran Sathiyan respectively. In all, 50 were in the pool for the franchises to pick their eight-member squads.
The highest ranked foreign players Frenchman Simon Gauzy (World No 8) and Hong Kong’s Doo Hoi Kem (World No 11) were picked by Challengers and RP-SG Mavericks respectively. The youngest Olympian in the fray, Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico, went to Dabang Smashers.
11Sports chairperson Vita Dani expressed her delight at the turnout of players for the second season. “Almost 50 per cent who took part in the inaugural season are back for the second season,” she pointed out. “This season will feature 25 Olympians, players of 19 different nationalities, 19 national champions and 17 No 1 ranked players. We are really proud that exciting talent from around the world is taking part this season,” she added.
India’s top players Manika Batra (World No 66), Mouma Das (No 71) and Harmeet Desai (No 66) went to Dabang Smashers, RP-SG Mavericks, RP-SG Mavericks and Maharashtra United respectively.
The league takes place at Pune’s Balewadi Indoor Stadium from 14-19 June 2018 before heading to Delhi’s Thyagaraj stadium from 20-25 June 2018. The final leg of the tournament will be played at Kolkata’s Netaji Indoor Stadium from 26 June to 1 July 2018.
CEAT-UTT SEASON 2 SQUADS
Challengers: Men: Simon Gauzy (France), Manav Thakkar, Tiago Apolonia (Portugal), Arjun Ghosh. Women: Lee Ho Ching (Hong Kong), Georgina Pota (Hungary), Divya Deshpande, Prapti Sen.
Dabang Smashers T.T.C: Men: Gnanasekaran Sathiyan, Yoshida Masaki (Japan), Sanish Ambekar, Cedric Nuytinck (Belgium). Women: Sakura Mori (Japan), Manika Batra, Adriana Diaz (Puerto Rico), Archana Kamath.
Falcons TTC: Men: Sanil Shetty, Liam Pitchford (Eng), Alvaro Robles (ESP), Ronit Bhanja. Women: Bernadette Szocs (Romania), Matilda Ekholm (Sweden), Sutirtha Mukherjee, Priyadarshini Das.
Maharashtra United: Men: Kristian Karlsson (Sweden), Amalraj Anthony, Joao Monteiro (Portugal), Utkarsh Gupta. Women: Elizabeta Samara (Romania), Madhurika Patkar, Lily Zhang (USA), Selena Selvakumar.
RP-SG Mavericks: Men: Mattias Karlsson (Sweden), Harmeet Desai, Kou Lei (Ukraine), Siddhesh Pande. Women: Doo Hoi Kem (Hong Kong), Ayhika Mukherjee, Mouma Das, Sabine Winter (Germany).
Yodhas: Men: Chuang Chih-Yuan(Chinese Taipei), Achanta Sharath Kamal, Aruna Quadri (Nigeria), Ravindra Kotiyan. Women: Sofia Polcanova (Austria), Hana Matelova (Czech Republic), Pooja Sahasrabuddhe, Sreeja Akula
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