Twenty-three thrilling matches. Sixteen days of power-packed action. Eight groups going all weapons blazing. Two nail-biting semifinals. And a new champion — U Mumba TT.
That’s how the sixth version of Ultimate Table Tennis — the franchise-based desk tennis league that’s getting greater and higher with each passing season ever since its post-pandemic return in 2023 — may be summed up.
While the Amdavadis, historically extra within the enterprise of sport than having fun with reside sport, hardly thronged to the EKA Arena, those that did returned with reminiscences price cherishing.
After following the match, the paddlers, the teaching workers and the organisers from shut quarters over 17 days in Ahmedabad, right here is how the match panned out.
UTT or UMTT
Being a young sibling of the U Mumba outfit within the Pro Kabaddi League area, a lot was anticipated of the U
Mumba paddlers. But identical to its kabaddi counterpart, which final received a title 9 seasons in the past, the 5 editions noticed the desk tennis lot earn the tag of ‘underachievers.’
The staff led by Bernadette Szocs — the Romanian who entered UTT because the highest-ranked paddler this season — shed the tag in type. After the first-ever participant public sale in UTT, the place U Mumba was the primary to finish its squad of six gamers, a lot of eyebrows had been raised over its decisions, particularly with regard to Indian male paddlers.
But Szocs — with meticulous planning by coaches John Murphy and Jay Modak, assisted by Nishant Kulkarni — bought the perfect out of each single particular person to wipe off the ‘under’ from its tag and lead the staff to glory. In reality, apart from being the champion, U Mumba ended up being the one staff to present not less than one match to every of the six gamers within the squad.
Having closely relied on children — with all 4 Indians in Akash Pal, P.B. Abhinandh, Yashaswini
Ghorpade and Swastika Ghosh being both in teenagers or the early 20s — U Mumba banked on their zest. And Lilian Bardet, the Frenchman who was Szocs’ teammate in UTT 2024, introduced within the maturity of an abroad paddler to type a excellent mixture that went all the best way.
While Szocs upped the ante when it mattered, within the massive closing towards Jaipur Patriots, it was Yashaswini
— the Bengalurean with Maharashtrian roots — that lived as much as the desk tennis legacy of her surname.
If her changing into the primary paddler to stun Fan Siqi, who turned solely the second Chinese paddler to be a part of UTT, was an achievement in itself, Yashaswini went one step forward within the semifinal.
Trailing 7-5 towards senior Krittwika Sinha Roy, she displayed exemplary management over her long-pimpled backhand to win all three video games, with the third off the 59th golden level of the season, and helped U Mumba enter its maiden closing.
With Yashaswini enjoying a main function in ending Goa Challengers’ title defence, it was clear that the match may have a new champion. And U Mumba ensured that it didn’t have to attend longer to carve its title on the glittering trophy.
New youngsters on the block
For many of the final three seasons, ever since UTT switched from an eight to six-member squad format, promising Indian paddlers needed to heat the bench on match days. They can be comfortable to be a a part of the entourage and be taught by coaching with seasoned execs, with little or no — or just about none — game-time.
Season six witnessed a welcome change on that entrance as eight Indian paddlers made their UTT debuts over the fortnight. They had been Akash Pal, Abhinandh and Swastika Ghosh (U Mumba), Divyansh
Srivastava (Ahmedabad SG Pipers), Sayali Wani (Dempo Goa Challengers), Ananya Chande (Kolkata
ThunderBlades), Taneesha Kotecha (PBG Pune Jaguars) and Payas Jain (Chennai Lions).
The reality that almost all of those eight paddlers — barring Swastika, Divyansh and Ananya — had spent not less than a season in UTT earlier speaks in regards to the desperation and the need of groups to check out new expertise on the massive stage. It additionally signifies the rising high quality of young Indian expertise.
“It’s a great sign for Indian table tennis. The more young talent on display at UTT, the better it is. The youngsters are right up there when it comes to skills, are confident irrespective of the opponents and are fearless in their approach. It’s a great sign for the future,” stated Sachin Shetty, the Jaipur Patriots coach.
Top Indian paddlers MIA
While the promising children had been making a splash and a few of the prime world paddlers had been in action, the absence of India’s star paddlers was a little bit of a dampener for UTT.
Three of the highest Indians — Manav Thakkar and the brand new National males’s champion Manush Shah together with Commonwealth Games queen Manika Batra — didn’t characteristic within the season.
With A. Sharath Kamal having hung up his boots after a glittering profession, Manush and Manav — a
Barodian and a Surti — may have drawn a native crowd of their dwelling state. But each opted towards registering for the public sale.
While the Indian desk tennis corridors are abuzz with a number of theories for the bespectacled duo’s resolution to skip UTT 2025, the UTT organisers clarified that was solely as a result of conflict of the match schedule with the duo’s commitments in European leagues.
Manika, however, pulled out on the last-minute attributable to an damage after that includes within the World Championship in direction of the top of the final month. It jeopardised Ahmedabad SG Pipers’ season, though the lanky paddler did flip as much as assist the staff for its inaugural match.
“It’s critical for all the top Indian players to feature in UTT. It helps them raise their stature and also the tournament’s,” stated Sweden’s Tobias Bergman, the Kolkata ThunderBlades coach.
“In my home country, and all over Europe, there is a lot of interest about UTT and if the top European players get to compete with the best from India, it will be an ideal scenario.”
The indisputable fact that the trio featured in a WTT occasion throughout the UTT’s latter phases additionally didn’t ship a proper sign to the desk tennis fraternity. It will hopefully be taken care of within the seasons to come back.
Amending the format
Despite the ultimate qualification spot being sealed on the final day, for a league like UTT that’s nonetheless making an attempt to draw curiosity from normal sport followers, a easier format would augur effectively.
At the second, the eight groups play 5 league matches. Not solely is it complicated for a fan making an attempt to maintain tempo with the line-ups, it additionally creates a not-so-ideal scenario for the franchises, each when it comes to type and fixtures.
No doubt an all-play-all format will imply there might be 28 league video games as an alternative of the prevailing 20, however with double-headers on most days, the three-week match window may be revered.
While the thought may be meals for thought, John Murphy, coach of U Mumba, had one other suggestion.
“Instead of following the set sequence of men’s singles, women’s singles, mixed doubles, reverse men’s singles and reverse women’s singles, the team winning the toss should be allowed to choose whether to start with a male or female player,” Murphy stated.
“For a team like us with Bernadette Szocs, we’d want her to open the tie. It could also prevent the final singles from always being a women’s match.”
If applied, the match will add one other dimension to the planning of the groups and might preserve most matches alive until the top.
Vitamin M
A franchise league is nothing however a business product. For most non-cricket sports activities leagues in India, it leads to the house owners and the promoters bleeding to demise.
UTT is an exception, because it’s backed by co-promoters who’re passionate in regards to the sport and not all eager about making a living by way of the league.
‘Let the franchise owners break even first. And making money is not the only objective of UTT’ appears to be the motto of Niraj Bajaj and Vita Dani – two of the main industrialists who’ve joined arms for UTT.
Thanks to its consecutive titles, Dempo Goa Challengers turned the primary staff to enter the inexperienced on the stability sheet.
Steady progress
While two others are prone to break even within the subsequent version, Vita is happy with the regular progress of the league when it comes to numbers – each monetary and when it comes to viewership.
At least a couple of groups, together with new entrants Kolkata ThunderBlades, managed to boost in extra of ₹50 lakh by way of jersey sponsorships. It is a welcome signal for a comparatively small-scale league like UTT.
“It will take a little time but we are moving in the right direction and quickly. For us, as league owners, our ROI is in how Indian table tennis does more than financials because we are not here to only make money. It is more important that as a country, we do well,” Vita stated.
