Mumbai: The recently-concluded Ultimate Table Tennis on Tuesday received positive responses from coaches of some of the teams which participated in the competition.
India played host to its first table tennis league, the Ultimate Table Tennis ,when the tournament kicked off in Chennai on July 13. The 18-day tournament, which consisted of six teams, took place over three cities- Chennai, New Delhi and Mumbai.
Falcons Table Tennis Club outclassed Shaze Challengers in the final of the Ultimate Table Tennis final at the NSCI Stadium here on July 30 after the final score read 14 -9 in favour of the former.
Peter Engel, the foreign coach of RP-SG Mavericks, was happy to see Indian players performing well. “I am really thrilled to see many of the Indian players progress so well though some of them are beating players from my team,” the former Indian table tennis coach said. The 63-year old was part of the Indian team in 2014, and helped some top Indian stars achieve memorable feats.
Arup Basak, who was the Indian coach of finalists Shaze Challengers, said that this was a great opportunity for Indian women players to learn from foreign players, who are experienced.
“With best of the Chinese-origin players like Han Ying and Wu Yang taking part in the league, this was the best opportunity for our Indian women to learn as much because rarely do our girls ever get to train against best defensive players. Most of our Indian women are attackers and to learn to play against chopper will help them a great deal in international matches,” he said.
Meanwhile, Challengers’ foreign coach Elena Timina rated the league on par with the foreign leagues. “The organisers have done an exceptional job in terms of carrying out the league which is on par with the ones played in Europe. They have also put in a lot of thought behind the kind of player pool which was critical.
“Though we did not win the final, I am happy with the performance of our team as well as to see many Indian players hold their nerves against top international stars. While I think the Indian men are already on par with international standards, the women can benefit a lot from leagues like these. They have great talent but need to pay more attention to their fitness levels,” commented Timina.
India’s Sanil Shetty, who enjoyed a great stint with RP-SG Mavericks, sounded confident that this was the way forward for Indian paddlers.
“Indian players will take part in the Czech Open and Bulgaria Open after the national ranking tournament in Delhi.
"I am sure many of them who participated at the UTT will try out different tactics they learnt during their stint at UTT during this outing and they will have enough time to adapt to these changes in their game ahead of an all-important 2018 where they play Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.
A professional league like UTT was the need of the hour and I am sure this will help create a larger pool of players in the coming years,” said Sanil, who is also a national coach.
Ultimate Table Tennis will return next year with the second edition, and will look to take the sport to greater heights.
