UTT 2024 Draft: Date, Venue, Players List, Rules For Ultimate Table Tennis Season 5 Draft

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The fifth season of Ultimate Table Tennis - UTT 2024 is slated to be held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai from August 22 to September 7. But before the season gets underway, the teams will look to assemble their squads.

The franchise-based league, promoted by Niraj Bajaj and Vita Dani under the auspices of the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI), has been a gamechanger for Indian table tennis since its inception in 2017.

The tournament has expanded this year. It will be an eight-team league for the first time providing a platform for young Indian paddlers to exhibit their talent alongside the world's elite players.

The format has undergone a slight alteration with the inclusion of eight teams, that will now be divided into two groups of four teams each for the first round or commonly known as the league stage.

Each franchisee will continue to compete in five ties during the league stage, facing all other teams within their respective group once, alongside two randomly selected teams from the opposing group, determined through a draw.

Six of the eight teams made retentions ahead of the player draft, which allows the teams to finalize their roster for the upcoming season. Star Indian paddlers have already been retained by their respective franchises before the draft.

UTT 2024 Retained Players List

• Chennai Lions - Achanta Sharath Kamal
• Dabang Delhi TTC - G Sathiyan
• Goa Challengers - Harmeet Desai
• U Mumba TT - Manav Thakkar
• PBG Bengaluru Smashers - Manika Batra

Bengaluru Smashers, Chennai Lions, Dabang Delhi, Goa Challengers and U Mumba have made retentions, while Puneri Paltan as well the newcomers Jaipur Patriots and Ahmedabad SG Pipers will be signing their first player for the roster during the upcoming draft.

While that answers the questions on the tournament format and retained players list, now let's take a look at the date, venue, players list and rules of the UTT 2024 draft:

When and where is the Ultimate Table Tennis 2024 draft taking place?

The Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) 2024 Players Draft will be held in Mumbai on Wednesday (July 10) when some of India's rising talents and elite international stars will be available for teams to sign.

Who are the players available in the UTT 2024 Draft?

World No. 10 Romania's Bernadette Szocs, rising India paddler Sreeja Akula, Nigeria's ace player Quadri Aruna, and Germany's Nina Mittelham are among the top players who will spearhead the strong line-up for the draft.

The 29-year-old Bernadette will be making her third appearance. Quadri, ranked 16th in the world, will be returning for his fourth appearance while World No. 17 Mittelham will be making her UTT debut this year.

World No. 24 Sreeja, who recently created history by becoming the country's first paddler to win a WTT Contender singles title, will be the key attraction among Indians.

How many players will be part of the UTT 2024 Draft?

A total of 47 players, including eight foreign men and women, will be part of the Player Draft and 43 players will get drafted to teams. Here is a look at some of the names available at the Draft:

UTT Draft 2024 Players List

• Sreeja Akula (India)
• Bernadette Szocs (Romania)
• Quadri Aruna (Nigeria)
• Nina Mittelham (Germany)
• Ayhika Mukherjee (India)
• Sutirtha Mukherjee (India)
• Yashaswini Ghorpade (India)
• Diya Chitale (India)
• Poymantee Baisya (India)
• Taneesha Kotecha (India)
• Snehit SFR (India)
• Jeet Chandra (India)
• Manush Shah (India)
• Yashansh Malik (India)
• Jules Rolland (France)
• Lilian Bardet (France)
• Joao Monteiro (Portugal)
• Alvaro Robles (Spain)
• Cho Seungmin (South Korea)
• Suthasini Sawettabut (Thailand)
• Sakura Mori (Japan)
• Lily Zhang (USA)
• Orawan Paranang (Thailand)

What are the rules of the UTT 2024 Players Draft?

According to the rules of the Player Draft, only Puneri Paltan Table Tennis, who did not retain a player, and two new teams - Jaipur Patriots and Ahmedabad SG Pipers - will be part of the opening round of the draft.

All eight teams will be in action from the second round of the draft as each franchise will have to make a six-member squad, consisting of one foreign male and female player as well as two Indian male and female players.