Ultimate Table Tennis 2023 returns after four years; know the full squads and schedule

Ultimate Table Tennis 2023 will begin on Thursday at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune. It gives returns after four years. The last edition of the tournament was played in 2019, after which it was canceled multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The Ultimate Table Tennis 2023 will see four of the six teams, Bengaluru Smashers, Chennai Lions, Dabang Delhi TTC, Goa Challengers, Puneri Paltan Table Tennis and U Mumba TT compete for the TT trophy. Each team will have six players, four Indian and two foreign players.

Meanwhile, Chennai Lions is led by Commonwealth Games champion Sharath Kamal and they are the defending champions. Puneri Paltan has world number 22 Omar Assar of Egypt. The Bengaluru Smash includes India's number one women's singles player Manika Batra. U Mumba is led by Nigeria's Aruna Quadri, who is ranked No. 18 in the world.

At the same time, Dabang Delhi are the 2018 champions, with top-order players like  Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and national champion Sreeja Akula. Asian Games and Commonwealth Games medalist Anthony Amalraj is also in the team.

Ultimate Table Tennis 2023 will be a single-legged round-robin league format tournament. The final will be played on 30 July. Each team will play five ties in the league stage. The top four teams will qualify for the semi-finals. Live streaming and telecast will be available in India.

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Where to watch Ultimate Table Tennis 2023 live

The Ultimate Table Tennis 2023 will be telecast live on Sports 18 TV channel in India. Live streaming of UTT 2023 will be available on the Jio Cinema.

Ultimate Table Tennis 2023 Squads:

• Bengaluru Smashers: Manika Batra, Sanil Shetty, Poymantee Baisya, Ankur Bhattacharjee, Kirill Gerassimenko (Kazakhstan) and Natalia Bajor (Poland)
• Chennai Lions: Sharath Kamal, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Payas Jain, Prapti Sen, Yangzi Liu (Australia) and Benedikt Duda (Germany)
• Dabang Delhi TTC: Sathiyan G, Sreeja Akula, Ayhika Mukherjee, Anirban Ghosh, Jon Persson (Sweden) and Barbora Balazova (Slovakia)
• Goa Challengers: Harmeet Desai, T Reeth Rishya, Kwittwika Sinha Roy, Anthony Amalraj, Suthasini Sawettabut (Thailand) and Alvaro Robles (Spain)
• Puneri Paltan Table Tennis: Manush Shah, Archana Kamath, Snehit SFR, Anusha Kutumbale, Omar Assar (Egypt) and Hana Matelova (Czech Republic)
• U Mumba TT: Manav Thakkar, Diya Chitale, Mouma Das, Sudhanshu Grover, Lily Zhang (USA) and Aruna Quadri (Nigeria)

Ultimate Table Tennis 2023 schedule:

• July 13, Thursday: Puneri Paltan vs Chennai Lions
• July 14, Friday: U Mumba vs Bengaluru Smashers 
• July 15, Saturday: Dabang Delhi vs Goa Challengers 
• July 16, Sunday: Chennai Lions vs U Mumba
• July 17, Monday: Puneri Paltan vs Goa Challengers
• July 18, Tuesday: Bengaluru Smashers vs Dabang Delhi 
• July 19, Wednesday: Goa Challengers vs U Mumba 
• July 20, Thursday: Chennai Lions vs Bengaluru Smashers 
• July 21, Friday: Dabang Delhi vs Puneri Paltan 
• July 22, Saturday: Goa Challengers vs Chennai Lions 
• July 23, Sunday: Puneri Paltan vs Bengaluru Smashers 
• July 24, Monday: Dabang Delhi vs U Mumba 
• July 25, Tuesday: Bengaluru Smashers vs Goa Challengers 
• July 26, Wednesday: Chennai Smashers vs Dabang Delhi 
• July 27, Thursday: U Mumba vs Puneri Paltan 
• July 28, Friday: Semi-final 1 
• July 29, Saturday: Semi-final 2
• July 30, Sunday: Final

All matches start at 7:30 PM Indian Standard Time (IST).