World No. 20 Aruna Quadri, No.34 Kou Lei and Womens No. 22 Sofia Polcanova will compete in the second edition of the CEAT Ultimate Table Tennis, it was announced on Tuesday.
A few new additions have been made to the second season as well with the most notable players being men's world No.37 Alvaro Robles from Spain along with women's No.20 Georgina Pota and world No. 25 Matilda Ekholm who have previously been a part of Seamaster ITTF India Open.
Sweden's Matilda Ekholm and Hungary's Georgina Pota had won the doubles title at the Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour India Open in New Delhi.
African champion and one of the best offensive players on the table, Aruna Quadri, has had a great run in 2017 having won the Polish Open and achieved a career-best ranking of 20.
Joining Aruna for the second edition of CEAT UTT is Lei who plied his trade alongside Marcos Freitas for the Dabang Smashers T.T.C. Lei recently won the Oman Fibre Optic International Open held in Muscat. He scored a total of 174 points during the first edition to help Dabang Smashers T.T.C reach third position in the league.
Polcanova and world No.72 Sabine Winter are back for the second season as well. They played alongside ace Indian paddler Sharath Kamal for RP-SG Mavericks last season and together scored 416 points for the team that finished at the bottom of the league table.
Dushyant Chautala, President, TTFI and M.P. Singh, Secretary General, TTFI are anticipating more world class players coming to India for the second edition.
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The six franchises for CEAT UTT are Dabang Smashers T.T.C., RP-SG Mavericks, DHFL Maharashtra United, Falcons TTC, Oilmax-Stag Yoddhas and Shaze Challengers. Falcons TTC emerged champions of the inaugural CEAT Ultimate Table Tennis.
--IANS
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