Ultimate Table Tennis Season 6 Introduces Auction with Global Stars and Emerging Indian Players

Mumbai, April 14 (NationPress) In a groundbreaking move, Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) is introducing a distinctive player auction for the first time in its history to shape the team line-ups for Season 6, marking an important evolution in the league.

The auction is slated for Tuesday in Mumbai and will present a mix of global stars—such as Chinese player Fan Siqi, world rank 13 Bernadette Szocs, and Olympians Aruna Quadri and Alvaro Robles. This will be combined with a vibrant roster of Indian talent, featuring Junior World No. 6 Ankur Bhattacharjee and two-time UTT champion Harmeet Desai.

Among the 56 participants in the auction, promising players like Diya Chitale and Yashaswini Ghorpade—India’s leading women’s singles athletes—along with rising stars such as teenage prodigy Syndrela Das and former U-17 World No. 1 Payas Jain, form a group of 25 young Indian talents under 25 years. They will compete alongside established champions like Harmeet Desai, past winners Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Manika Batra, Sutirtha Mukherjee, and Sreeja Akula, who recently won the WTT Contender Lagos 2024. Each of the eight teams will receive 50 lakh virtual tokens to bid on players, plus a one-time Right to Match (RTM) card allowing them to retain a player from last season by matching the final bid.

This franchise-based league, backed by Niraj Bajaj and Vita Dani under the guidance of the Table Tennis Federation of India, will unfold from May 29 to June 15 at the EKA Arena in Ahmedabad. Commenting on the player pool, they stated: “The auction for UTT Season 6 showcases the remarkable growth of table tennis in India over the past five years. With 25 players under 25 participating alongside both international and domestic stars, it's evident that the next generation is stepping up. Hosting the league in Ahmedabad, a city pivotal to India’s Olympic 2036 vision, is quite fitting as UTT continues to unite top-tier table tennis across the nation.”

Twelve out of the 16 international players in the UTT Season 6 auction are Olympians. Notable returning athletes include UTT Season 2 champion Adriana Diaz and Spaniard Maria Xiao. Debuting players include Britt Eerland, Dina Meshref, Zeng Jian, and Giorgia Piccolin. Lilian Bardet from France, who made a mark last season, is back, along with former UTT champion Tiago Apolónia and Kirill Gerassimenko, who bring valuable experience. Kanak Jha, Ricardo Walther, and Izaac Quek are entering the player pool for the first time.

Meanwhile, the Indian lineup is brimming with promising talents, including World Youth Championship medalists Taneesha Kotecha, Suhana Saini, and Sayali Wani, along with Asian Championships medalist Sarth Mishra and emerging players like Jennifer Varghese, Abhinandh PB, and Deepit Patil, all eager to compete alongside experienced veterans.

Players will be categorized into four base price tiers—Pool A (11 lakh tokens), Pool B (7 lakh), Pool C (4 lakh), and Pool D (2 lakh). The bidding process will follow a structured format with increments of 10,000 tokens, fostering a competitive and strategic environment as teams form their rosters for UTT Season 6.

Ultimate Table Tennis Season 6 Auction Pool

Pool A (11 lakh tokens): Alvaro Robles (Spain), Kanak Jha (USA), Kirill Gerassimenko (Kazakhstan), Ricardo Walther (Germany), Quadri Aruna (Nigeria), Adriana Diaz (Puerto Rico), Bernadette Szocs (Romania), Britt Eerland (Netherlands), Dina Meshref (Egypt), Fan Siqi (China), Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula

Pool B (7 lakh tokens): Lilian Bardet (France), Tiago Apolónia (Portugal), Quek Izaac (Singapore), Giorgia Piccolin (Italy), Maria Xiao (Spain), Zeng Jian (Singapore), Ankur Bhattacharjee, Harmeet Desai, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Diya Chitale, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Swastika Ghosh, Yashaswini Ghorpade

Pool C (4 lakh tokens): Akash Pal, Anirban Ghosh, Divyansh Srivastava, Payas Jain, Ronit Bhanja, Snehit Suravajjula, Anusha Kutumbale, Krittwika Sinha Roy, Madhurika Patkar, Reeth Rishya, Syndrela Das, Taneesha Kotecha

Pool D (2 lakh tokens): Chinmaya Somaiya, Deepit Patil, Jeet Chandra, Mudit Dani, P.B. Abhinandh, Raegan Albuquerque, Raj Mondal, Sarth Mishra, Sourav Saha, Sudhanshu Grover, Yashansh Malik, Ananya Chande, Jennifer Varghese, Nikhat Banu, Pritha Vartikar, Sayali Wani, Selena Selvakumar, Suhana Saini, Yashini Sivashankar