New Delhi, May 16 (IANS) Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) season 6 will kick off with a double-header on May 31 at the EKA Arena in Ahmedabad, with the opening night witnessing defending champions Dempo Goa Challengers taking on home side Ahmedabad SG Pipers in a primetime clash. 

Earlier in the evening, Season 2 winners Dabang Delhi TTC will face Sreeja Akula-led Jaipur Patriots in the ceremonial opener, setting the tone for a high-voltage season, where eight franchises will compete across 23 ties.

U Mumba TT, led by World No. 14 Bernadette Szocs and rising Indian star Yashaswini Ghorpade, begin their season with a mouth-watering Maharashtra Derby on June 1 against PBG Pune Jaguars, spearheaded by Spanish ace Alvaro Robles.

Debutants Kolkata ThunderBlades, featuring World Youth No. 5 Ankur Bhattacharjee and Olympians Quadri Aruna and Adriana Diaz, open their campaign on June 2 against Season 3 winners Chennai Lions, headlined by China’s Fan Siqi, the most expensive pick at this year’s auction, and former World Youth No. 1 (U-17) Payas Jain.

The Western Derby between Mumbai and Ahmedabad on June 2. A rematch of last year’s final between Dabang Delhi and Dempo Goa Challengers–which pits Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Diya Chitale against Harmeet Desai and Singapore’s Zeng Jian–is set for June 4. The semifinals will be played on June 13 and 14, leading to the Grand Finale.

Each team will play five ties across the group stage, while each tie will consist of five matches—two men’s singles, two women’s singles, and one mixed doubles. After the league stage, the top four teams on the points table will progress to the knockout stage, with the semi-finals featuring Team No. 1 vs Team No. 4 and Team No. 2 vs Team No. 3.

Staged under the aegis of the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) and promoted by Vita Dani and Niraj Bajaj, UTT has rapidly become one of the most coveted global sports properties in table tennis.

UTT drew 20 million viewers in 2024, a 1.3x rise from the previous season. The opener between Dempo Goa Challengers and Jaipur Patriots drew 1.33 million, while the U Mumba TT vs Ahmedabad SG Pipers derby scaled to 1.83 million on TV. Across the season, the league averaged over a million viewers per match.

–IANS

bc/