Mumbai: All roads for table tennis fans in the city will lead to NSCI Worli as the curtains go up on the second edition of the competitive UTT Mumbai Super League here on Thursday, with defending champions Blazing Bashers and Phantom Stars squaring off in the opener. The Bashers will look to draw inspiration from their star players Raegan Albuquerque and Shruti Amrute, who have been in excellent form. It will, however not be easy as Phantoms, led by Ravindra Kotiyan and Mamata Prabhu, have the firepower in their arsenal to test them all the way.
A total of six ties will be played on the opening day of the League, which is being conducted under the aegis of MCDTTA and MSDTTA. Last year’s runners-up Ace led by Senhora D’Souza will take on Kool Smashers later in the day. Century Warriors, featuring Divya Deshpande and Havish Asrani, will be up against West Coast Rangers which has the likes of Sanish Ambekar and Deepit Patil in their squad.
In the evening session, the formidable King Pong, starring Madhurika Patkar will start their campaign against Supreme Fighters which boasts of players like Dev Shroff and Siddhesh Pande in their ranks. The Phantoms will come back for their second tie against The Topspinners led by Sanil Shetty while the last tie of the day will see Ace facing off against Diya Chitale’s Ping Panthers. Diya was the star of the players’ auction emerging as the costliest player and a lot will be expected out of her in the league. A total of 10 teams will be in action over the next four days. They have been divided into two groups of 5 teams each and will follow a round-robin format. The top two teams from each pool will qualify for the knockout stage.
