Aruna Quadri leads foreign players line-up; Sharath, Sathiyan and Manika key attractions among Indians

Manika Batra and Aruna Quadri. File
| Photo Credit: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

Veteran paddler Sharath Kamal, G. Sathiyan and Manika Batra will headline the Indian line-up while world No. 12 Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri will be among the foreign players competing in the upcoming season of Ultimate Table Tennis.

The fourth season is scheduled to be held at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune from July 13 to 30 and the player draft will be held in Mumbai next month.

From a pool of 40 available players, each team can choose two foreigners – one male and one female and four Indians – two male and two female. Every team has the right to retain one player from the previous season.

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The Indian line-up will also include reigning national champion Sreeja Akula, who has just won back-to-back Nationals Titles, U-19 boys national title holder Payas Jain, Diya Chitale, S. Fidel, R. Snehit and Ankur Bhattacharjee.

Besides Ms. Aruna, World No. 32 Benedikt Duda of Germany, World No. 34 Omar Assar of Egypt, Alvaro Robles of Spain, who won a doubles silver at the 2019 World Championships, will also be part of the fourth seasom.

USA’s Lily Zhang (WR24), Australia’s Yangzi Liu (WR32), Thailand’s Suthasini Sawettabut (WR33) and Barbora Balazova of Slovakia (WR44) will be the international women’s players in the draft pool.

The upcoming season will feature six teams: Bengaluru Smashers, Chennai Lions, Dabang Delhi TTC, Goa Challengers, Puneri Paltan Table Tennis and U Mumba TT.