The fourth season of Ultimate Table Tennis begins with the match between Chennai Lions and Puneri Paltan

Pune. Star table tennis player Achanta Sharath Kamal will take on Chennai Lions and hosts Puneri Paltan to open the fourth season of Ultimate Table Tennis here on Thursday. Four years ago Chennai Lions won the title by defeating Dabang Delhi in the final and would like to repeat that performance this time too. This league of six teams will be played from July 13 to 30. Sharath is among the four players retained by the teams this time. All eyes will be on his performance ahead of this year’s Asian Games in China and the 2024 Paris Olympics. Bengaluru Smashers have retained Manika Batra and Dabang Delhi have retained G Sathiyan.

Manav Thakkar will take charge of Mumbai. Apart from four-time Olympian Sharath, the Chennai team also has Yangzi Liu of Australia and Benedict Duda of Germany. Apart from these, India’s Sutirtha Mukherjee, Payas Jain and Prapti Sen are also in this team. The Puneri Paltan will be eyeing Egypt’s Omar Assar, who became the second African player to reach the quarterfinals of the World Table Tennis Championships in South Africa this year. Hana Matelova of Czech Republic is the foreign player in the women’s section. India’s Snehit SFR, Anusha K, Archana Kamath and Manush Shah will also play alongside them.

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Bengaluru Smashers will be led by Manika along with Ankush Bhattacharya, Sanil Shetty, Poymanti Baisya, Kirill G of Kazakhstan and Natalya Bajor of Poland. Dabang Delhi’s performance will hinge on Sathiyan, the first Indian to break into the top 25. She will be accompanied by Sreeja Akula, Ayhika, Anirban Ghosh, Barbora Balajova of Slovakia and Jon Persson of Sweden. Thailand’s Suthasini S and Alvaro Robles will play in the Goa Challengers team. Harmeet Desai, K Sinha Roy, Anthony Amalraj, Tim Rith Rishya are prominent among the Indian players. Apart from Thakkar, the U Mumba team will also feature Diya Chitale, Mouma Das, Grovers, Aruna Quadri and Lily Zhang. All matches will start at 7.30 pm.