UTT: Sathiyan Gnanasekaran to lead Dabang Smashers TTC

Pune: Dabang Smashers Table Tennis Club today announced that paddler Sathiyan Gnanasekaran will be their captain for this year's edition of the Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) that begins in Pune on June 14.

Sathiyan will captain a side that includes players like Manika Batra, who won a gold medal in table tennis at the April Commonwealth Games in Australia, and the Japanese duo of Yoshida Masaki and Sakura Mori, a media release issued here said.

Young players of the squad include Archana Kamath and Sanish Ambekar and also Adriana Diaz from Puerto Rico. The team will be coached by Sachin Shetty and Romanian Andrei Filimon, it said.

"We are confident we can challenge for the title this year. We have the players to do so and we have the mentality to do so as well," Gnanasekaran was quoted as saying in the release.

The second season of UTT will be held in Pune, New Delhi and Kolkata from June 14 to July 1, the organisers had earlier announced.