Mumbai, Jul 1 (PTI) India’s rising player Sreeja Akula, Romania’s world No 10 Bernadette Szocs, Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri and German Nina Mittelham are among the top players listed for the Ultimate Table Tennis 2024 draft to be held here on July 10.
The upcoming edition of UTT is slated in Chennai from August 22-September 7.
The players draft will have 47 players including eight foreign men’s and women’s players and among them 43 will be drafted into the teams.
The Paris Olympics-bound Indian stars Sharath Kamal, Manika Batra, Harmeet Desai, Manav Thakkar and G Sathiyan have already been retained by their respective franchises.
Among Indians, the world No 24 Akula, who recently claimed the WTT Contender singles title, will garner attraction.
For the 29-year-old Bernadette, this will be her third appearance, while the 16th ranked Quadri will be set for his fourth. Mittleham will play in her maiden season.
Sharath Kamal remains with Chennai Lions while G Sathiyan will play for Dabang Delhi TTC again.
Desai will continue to represent Goa Challengers while Thakkar will turn up for U Mumba TT. Manika will play for Bengaluru Smashers.
With Puneri Paltan not retaining any of their players, they will be a part of the opening round of the draft along with new teams Jaipur Patriots and Ahmedabad SG Pipers.
“All eight teams will be in action from the second round as each franchise will have to make a six-member squad, consisting of one foreign male and female player and two Indian male and female players,” a release from the organisers said.
Among the other Indian players in the draft will be Asian Games doubles bronze medallists Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee, Yashaswini Ghorpade, Diya Chitale, Poymantee Baisya and Taneesha Kotecha among women.
Snehit SFR, Jeet Chandra, Manush Shah and Yashansh Malik are the other men’s players in the draft.
Among the foreign players in the draft are this year’s World Team Table Tennis Championships silver medallists Jules Rolland and Lilian Bardet of France, four-time Olympian and 2015 European Championships doubles gold medallist Joao Monteiro of Portugal, 2019 World Championships doubles silver medallist Alvaro Robles of Spain and South Korea’s World No 70 Cho Seungmin in the men’s category.
Among the women players, Thailand’s Suthasini Sawettabut (WR 56), who played for title winners Goa Challengers last year, Sakura Mori (WR 27), Lily Zhang (WR 30) and Orawan Paranang (WR 36) will be part of the draft.
The competition will be divided into two groups of four teams each this year.
“Each team will compete in five ties during the league stage, facing all other teams within their respective group once, alongside two randomly selected teams from the opposing group which will be determined through a draw,” the release added. PTI DDV TAP
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