MUMBAI: The organizers of the Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) have announced the event schedule for the inaugural edition.
UTT will be held from July 13 to July 30 with the opening game featuring RP-SG Mavericks with India's top paddler Sharath Kamal taking on Falcons TTC to be held in Chennai at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium and the finale to be held in Mumbai.
Being broadcast on the Star Sports network, Hotstar and Jio TV, UTT promises nearly three weeks of action-packed table tennis – something that the nation will witness for the first time.
While Chennai will host the first leg of India's first ever professional table tennis League, the second leg will be played in Delhi from July 21 to July 25. Delhi will host five ties with iProspect Challengers taking on Falcons TTC on July 21 at the Thyagaraj Stadium.
The last and the final leg of the league will be held here starting July 26 with the semi finals and final to be played at the NSCI. While the semi finals are scheduled to be held on July 28 and July 29, the final will be played on July 30.
UTT is India’s newest franchise-based professional sports league which will see 24 foreign players and 24 Indian players (both men and women) play for six different franchises. Each franchise will comprise of a combination of overseas and Indian players - four men and four women, along with one Indian and one International Coach each.
The franchises are club-based instead of city-based unlike other popular leagues in the country and features Maharashtra United, Oilmax-Stag Yoddhas, Dabbang Smashers TTC, iProspect Challengers, Falcons TTC (Bayside Spinners) and RP-SG Mavericks.
The event will be played in an interesting format where each team will play nine matches in a tie with each match comprising 3 Games. Consequently, each tie shall comprise 27 Games. Each game shall have players competing with each other to score 11 points first, meaning in the event that scores are level at 10-all then the 11th point will be a golden point and shall decide the winner. Whichever individual/pair scores 11 points and is termed as the winner of each game shall receive one point towards the team’s total for each such game that is won. The winning team in a tie shall be decided by the number of total games won i.e. total points won in the relevant tie. The team that wins 14 or more Games out of the 27 Games shall be the winner of that respective tie.
The top four teams from the league phase will qualify for the play-offs. The play-offs will comprise two semi-finals with the first placed team in the league phase playing the fourth placed team and the second and third placed teams playing each other.
"At the heart of its concept, the Ultimate Table Tennis vies to benefit the development of Indian players by allowing them to play alongside some of the world's best. With the announcement of the schedule today, we at the UTT, are eager for the launch of the event and hope that the inaugural edition will garner the support of the Indian audience. We are confident that UTT will provide a table tennis experience that will inspire a new crop of players to take up the sport," expressed Mrs Vita Dani, UTT owner and co-promoter.
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