World No. 7 paddler Wong Chun Ting of Hong Kong and womens World No.9 Han Ying of Germany are among the 24 men and women foreign players who will be part of the Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) to be held in Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai starting on July 13, it was announced on Monday.
India's Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra will lead the list of 12 men and 12 women from the country out of a strong pool of 48 players. Manika and Mouma Das created history in Germany by becoming the first Indian pair to reach the quarter-finals of the World Table Tennis Championships.
The table tennis extravaganza will comprise six franchisees and will be hosted in Chennai (July 13-20), New Delhi (July 21 to 26) with the final leg being held in Mumbai (July 27 to 30).
Each team will have eight players -- four men and four women -- with an equal mix of overseas and Indian players, apart from a foreign and an Indian coach.
"These are exciting times for us at the UTT as we inch closer to the launch of the first ever professional TT league in India. We have received an overwhelming response from foreign players and have a strong pool of Indian talent also," expressed Vita Dani, Chairperson, 11Even Sports, the promoter of the tournament.
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There will be 15 league matches, with each tie played on a nine individual match basis. Each individual match will consist of three games on a race to 11 with each game winner being awarded one point.
Each league match will have 27 points to play for and the four franchisees with highest points in the league stage will advance to the semi-finals.
The champion will receive Rs 1 crore, runner-up Rs 75 lakh and the losing semi-finalists Rs 50 lakh each. The remaining Rs 25 lakh, from a total purse of Rs 3 crore, will be presented to individual performers.
Each franchisee will get to pick eight players through a draft that will be conducted on June 9 to ensure balance of strength for each franchisee.
Overseas players:
Men: 1. Wong Chun Ting (Hong Kong, World No. 7), 2. Marcos Freitas (Portugal, World No. 16), 3. Tiago Apolonia (Portugal, World No. 19), 4. Stefan Fegerl (Austria, World No. 21), 5. Kou Lei (Ukraine, World No.24), 6. Panagiotis Gionis (Greece, World No.36), 7. Aruna Quadri (Nigeria, World No. 37), 8. Andrej Gacina (Croatia, World No.38), 9. Par Gerell (Sweden, World No.44), 10. Li Ping (Qatar, World No. 48), 11. Joao Monteiro (Portugal, World No. 49), 12. Liam Pitchford (England, World No. 51)
Women: 1. Han Ying (Germany, World No.9), 2. Wu Yang (China, World No.12), 3. Doo Hoi Kem (Hong Kong, World No.13), 4. Hu Melek (Turkey, World No.15), 5. Liu Jia (Austria, World No. 17), 6. Petrissa Solja (Germany, World No.20), 7. Lee Ho Ching (Hong Kong, World No. 33), 8. Yu Fu (Portugal, World No.35), 9. Li Qian (Poland, World No. 37), 10. Sabine Winter (Germany, World No.39), 11. Polina Mikhailova (Russia, World No.54), 12. Tetyana Bilenko (Ukraine, World No.56)
Indian players:
Men: 1. Sharath Kamal Achanta, 2. Soumyajit Ghosh, 3. Harmeet Desai, 4. Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, 5. Amalraj Anthony, 6. Sanil Shetty, 7. Jubin Kumar, 8. Manav Thakkar, 9. Ronit Bhanja, 10. Birdie Boro, 11. Arjun Ghosh, 12. Abhishek Yadav
Women: 1. Manika Batra, 2. Mouma Das, 3. Madhurika Patkar, 4. Pooja Sahasrabudhe, 5. Suthirtha Mukherjee, 6. Mousumi Paul, 7. Krittwika Sinha Roy, 8. Archana Kamath, 9. Moumita Dutta, 10. Amurtha Pushpak, 11. Priyadarshini Das, 12. Selena Deepti Selvakumar.
--IANS
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