UTT 2024: Player draft completed, Sreeja Akula to play for Jaipur Patriots

India’s top ranked paddler Sreeja Akula was drafted into Jaipur Patriots team ahead of the upcoming season of the Ultimate Table Tennis League 2024.

Jaipur Patriots, who will be playing for the first time in the league, got the chance for the first pick and the think-tank did not waste any time in zeroing on Sreeja, who is ranked 25 in the world and us also the first Indian player to win a WTT Contender singles title.

The second debut franchise, Ahmedabad SG Pipers, picked Manush Shah as their first choice player while Puneri Paltan Table Tennis, who did not retain any player, picked Ayhika Mukherjee as their first pick.

World No. 10 in the women’s singles Bernadette Szocs of Romania will play for Ahmedabad SG Pipers while U Mumba TT went with the tried and tested formula by drafting Nigerian star paddler and World No. 19 Aruna Quadri in their team along with India’s Asian Games bronze medallist Sutirtha Mukherjee.

Alvaro Robles of Spain and Lily Zhang of the USA along with Manika Batra will play for PBG Bengaluru Smashers. The Bengaluru Smashers retained Manika ahead of the draft.

Defending champions Goa Challengers, who retained Harmeet Desai, have a completely new look as they went for Yangzi Liu of Australia alongside young Indian paddlers Yashaswini Ghorpade and Sayali Wani. Mihai Bobocica of Italy, who had competed in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, will be their foreign men’s paddler.

Last edition’s runners-up Chennai Lions will have Japan’s Sakura Mori, Frenchman Jules Rolland and local stars Poymantee Baisya, Mouma Das, and Abhinandh PB along with Achanta Sharath Kamal in their line-up.

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran along with Andreas Levenko of Austria, Indian paddlers Diya Chitale, Lakshita Narang, and Yashansh Malik will play for Dabang Delhi.

The upcoming edition of the UTT will be held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai from August 22 to September 7.

UTT squads:

Ahmedabad SG Pipers: Manush Shah, Bernadette Szocs (Romania), Lilian Bardet (France), Reeth Rishya, 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).