Ultimate Table Tennis will help us get match practice for Asian Games: Manika Batra

Pune (Maharashtra) [India], July 12 : India's table tennis star Manika Batra is all set to start her stint with Bengaluru Smashers in The Ultimate Table Tennis 2023 starting from Thursday. 

Speaking to ANI, Manika said that UTT will help Indian paddlers get match practice ahead of Asian Games. 

The Ultimate Table Tennis 2023, featuring some of the biggest names in the sport internationally, will be starting in Pune's Balewadi Sports Complex on Thursday. It makes a return after four years. The previous edition of the tournament was played in 2019, following which it was cancelled numerous times due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"When I played first season of UTT. It was an exposure for me. I think I have best at that time and this year also I will give my best. So, youngsters are getting the exposure. We have Diya and so many new players. This will help in growth of table tennis. It will become popular in India and like I said I am also young. Not too old I will just play like a youngster and have fun," she told ANI.  

The Commonwealth Games 2018 gold medalist is all excited to play for Bengaluru Smashers. She said, "Of course I am really excited. It is happening after three years. I am excited that I am in Bengaluru Smashers. A new team and we have a great team, players and staff also. I am really happy that I am playing for Bengaluru Smashers of course. How the tournament will go, we will give our best and we will support our team who so ever is in it. We will support each other and we are very happy." 

The tournament will feature four six teams, Bengaluru Smashers, Chennai Lions, Dabang Delhi TTC, Goa Challengers, Puneri Paltan Table Tennis and U Mumba TT competing for the trophy. Each team will have six players, four Indian and two foreign players.Chennai Lions are headed by Commonwealth Games champion Sharath Kamal and are defending champions. Puneri Paltans have world number 22 Omar Assar of Egypt.

Bengaluru Smashes feature the number one women's singles player from India, Manika Batra. U Mumba is spearheaded by Aruna Quadri of Nigeria, who is world number 18.

Dabang Delhi are the 2018 Champions having top-ranked players like Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and national champion Sreeja Akula in their side. Asian Games and CWG medalist Anthony Amalraj, is also there in the team.The UTT Season 4 will be a single-legged round-robin league format tournament. The final is set to be played on July 30.

"I think it's great that UTT is taking place. We will get match practice for Asian Games and Asian Championship. I will

prepare myself for those tournaments in this UTT. It will be a good match. I will just give my best for this season," the Indian shuttler told ANI

"I think not only Asian or Olympics. I have recently defeated world no. 15 and many players. Right now I am playing in good flow. I will keep playing the same way. Let's see how it goes. I will not put the pressure that I have to win a medal in Olympics. I will try to plau the best I can," Manika further added. 

Ultimate Table Tennis 2023 teams and 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).