As Season 4 for the Ultimate Table Tennis gets underway, Chennai Lions' Achanta Sharath Kamal readies himself for a solid title defence starting with Puneri Paltan in Pune on Thursday.
In the third edition played four years ago in 2019, Chennai Lions had defeated Dabang Delhi in the final to claim the title.
Sharath is one of the four players to have been retained by their respective franchises in this year's tournament, which is scheduled from July 13 to 30.
The 54th-ranked table tennis player is also an attraction at the event alongside Manika Batra, as India prepare for Asian Games in September and Paris Olympics next year.
Sharath has been a part of UTT since its inception and has already spoken about how the fourth season is a way for him to prepare for the future mega events.
Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran were also retained by Bengaluru Smashers and Dabang Delhi, respectively.
Manav Thakkar, former world no. 1 in U-18 and U-21 categories will spearhead U Mumba TT's attack.
The Chennai Lions line-up features Australia's Yangzi Liu and Germany's Benedikt Duda, alongside Indian players like Sutirtha Mukherjee, Payas Jain and Prapti Sen.
Sutirtha has been one of the players to watch out for, of late, having won three gold medals in the South Asian Games in 2019. Most recently, she won the doubles title in WTT Contender Tunis alongside Ayhika Mukherjee.
Puneri Paltan have the services of Egyptian player Omar Assar, who recently became the first from his country and only the second African player to reach the quarterfinals of the World Table Tennis Championship.
Hana Matelova is the overseas female player for Puneri Paltan. Other members include Snehit SFR , Anusha Kutumbale, Archana Kamath and Manush Shah.
Batra will lead Bengaluru Smashers with Ankur Bhattacharjee, Sanil Shetty, Poymantee Baisya, Kazakhstan's Kirill Gerassimenko and Natalia Bajor as team-mates.
Sathiyan, who is the first Indian player to break into top 25 will helm Dabang Delhi's campaign, looking to do one better from the last edition. He will be in the company of Sreeja Akula, Ayhika, Anirban Ghosh, Slovakia's Barbora Balazova and Jon Persson.
Goa Challengers have Alvaro Robles and Suthasini Sawettabut as their overseas attractions. They have in tow Krittwika Sinha Roy, Anthony Amalraj and T Reeth Rishya, who were India's representations at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
U Mumba TT is among top contenders to win the title with Aruna Quadri, who is ranked 16th in the world, as the one to watch out for.
The tournament, featuring six teams, will witness a league round of 15 matches, with the semifinals played on July 28 and 29, followed by the final on July 30. All matches start at 7.30 PM.
Squads:
Bengaluru Smashers: Manika Batra, Kirill Gerassimenko (Kazakhstan), Sanil Shetty, Natalia Bajor (Poland), Poymantee Baisya, Ankur Bhattacharjee.
Chennai Lions: Sharath Kamal, Yangzi Liu (Australia), Benedikt Duda (Germany), Sutirtha Mukherjee, Payas Jain, Prapti Sen.
Dabang Delhi TTC: Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Sreeja Akula, Barbora Balazova (Slovakia), Ayhika Mukherjee, Anirban Ghosh, Jon Persson (Sweden).
Goa Challengers: Suthasini Sawettabut (Thailand), Harmeet Desai, Alvaro Robles (Spain), T Reeth Rishya, Krittwika Sinha Roy, Anthony Amalraj.
Puneri Paltan Table Tennis: Omar Assar (Egypt), Manush Shah, Archana Kamath, Snehit SFR, Anusha Kutumbale, Hana Matelova (Czech Republic).
U Mumba TT: Manav Thakkar, Lily Zhang (US), Aruna Quadri (Nigeria), Diya Chitale, Mouma Das, Sudhanshu Grover.
