Ultimate Table Tennis 2023 Draft: Complete squads of all six teams
With the recently completed UTT Season 4 Player Draft, anticipation for the upcoming season of Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) is peaking. On June 2, team owners, management, and coaches gathered at the prestigious National Sports Club of India in Mumbai to plan and secure their teams for what is expected to be an epic comeback season.
Puneri Paltan Table Tennis (PPTT) and Goa Challengers (GC) chose not to keep any players, earning them the first picks in the draft. Omar Assar, a rising star from Egypt, was chosen by PPTT as their first addition to the team. Assar is now ranked No. 22 in the world thanks to his outstanding performances in recent competitions, which have moved him up eight spots in the ITTF rankings. Suthasini Sawettabut of Thailand, a former Southeast Asian Games champion, was the first pick of the GC.
Moving on to Round 2, U Mumba TT chose the talented American player Lily Zhang with the opportunity to make the first pick. On the other hand, the Bengaluru Smashers went with Kazakhstani Kirill Gerassimenko. Manush Shah joined PPTT, while Harmeet Desai was chosen as their backup by GC.
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran was already a member of the Dabang Delhi TTC team thanks to retention, and Sreeja Akula, a two-time national champion, joins him in the team. Achanta Sharath Kamal, an expert paddler for the Chennai Lions, selected Benedikt Duda of Germany and Liu Yangzi of Australia as their first two picks.
Sanil Shetty was added to the Bengaluru Smashers, who had already retained Manika Batra. Poland's Natalia Bajor, Poymantee Baisya, and Ankur Bhattacharjee completed the team.
The Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune will host UTT Season 4 from July 13 to July 30. Sports 18 and Jio Cinema will both stream the games live.
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Final List of Squads for All Teams:
Bengaluru Smashers:
1. Manika Batra (Retained)
2. Kirill Gerassimenko (Kazakhstan)
3. Sanil Shetty
4. Natalia Bajor (Poland)
5. Poymantee Baisya
6. Ankur Bhattacharjee
Chennai Lions:
1. Achanta Sharath Kamal (Retained)
2. Liu Yangzi (Australia)
3. Benedikt Duda (Germany)
4. Sutirtha Mukherjee
5. Payas Jain
6. Prapti Sen
Dabang Delhi Table Tennis:
1. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (Retained)
2. Sreeja Akula
3. Barbora Balazova (Slovakia)
4. Ayhika Mukherjee
5. Anirban Ghosh
6. Jon Persson (Sweden)
Goa Challengers:
1. Suthasini Sawettabut (Thailand)
2. Harmeet Desai
3. Alvaro Robles (Spain)
4. T Reeth Rishya
5. Kwittwika Sinha Roy
6. Anthony Amalraj
Puneri Paltan Table Tennis:
1. Omar Assar (Egypt)
2. Manush Shah
3. Archana Kamath
4. Snehit SFR
5. Anusha Kutumbale
6. Hana Matelova (Czech Republic)
U Mumba TT:
1. Manav Thakkar (Retained)
2. Lily Zhang (US)
3. Aruna Quadri (Nigeria)
4. Diya Chitale
5. Mouma Das
6. Sudhanshu Grover