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Tag: Vita Dani UTT

  • Dream Sports Foundation and UTT team up to serve India’s next table tennis champs

    Dream Sports Foundation and UTT team up to serve India’s next table tennis champs

    MUMBAI: In a sharp backhand boost to grassroots talent, Dream Sports Foundation (DSF) and Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) have joined forces to launch ‘Dream UTT Juniors’ — a one-of-a-kind under-15 table tennis tournament designed to offer rising stars a taste of the big league.

    The initiative will see eight top-performing boys and girls from the recently concluded Dream Sports Championship Table Tennis 2025 drafted into UTT franchises. These young athletes will compete alongside the sixth season of the Ultimate Table Tennis league, scheduled from 29 May to 8 June in Ahmedabad, with matches streamed live on Fancode.

    “At Dream Sports, we are driven by our vision to ‘Make Sports Better’”, said Dream Sports CEO & co-founder Harsh Jain. “Thanks to Vita Dani and Niraj Bajaj, Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) has played a pivotal role in nurturing India’s table tennis talent to compete & win at the global stage. But there remains a pressing need to support grassroots talent, and our partnership to create Dream UTT Juniors is a big step toward bridging this gap. Through our Dream Sports Foundation, we aim to empower the next generation of athletes to make India proud in the 2030 Youth Olympics and thereafter at the 2036 Olympics”.

    Dream UTT Juniors marks a pivotal extension of DSF’s mission to build from the base. The U-15 stars were selected through a national talent pool, shaped during DSF and the Table Tennis Federation of India’s earlier initiative—one lauded for professionalism and intensity rarely seen at this level.

    “Dream UTT Juniors is a natural extension of our shared vision with Dream Sports Foundation — to strengthen the foundation of sport in India and empower young athletes”, added UTT co-promoter Vita Dani. “By giving budding table tennis talent early exposure to the world-class UTT ecosystem, we’re not just launching a tournament — we’re creating a pathway for the next generation of Indian stars to emerge”.

    Since 2017, UTT has helped rewrite the script for Indian table tennis, providing domestic talent the platform to share space with international champions. Now, Dream UTT Juniors aims to embed that exposure early in the athlete journey.

    With this initiative, DSF and UTT aim to establish a structured pipeline that bridges school-level promise with professional readiness. As Indian table tennis gains new traction, this partnership might just deliver India’s future champions.

  • JioStar inks three-year broadcast deal with Indianoil UTT to serve table tennis turbo

    JioStar inks three-year broadcast deal with Indianoil UTT to serve table tennis turbo

    MUMBAI: Indianoil Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) has found a powerful broadcast ally in JioStar. The league announced a three-year partnership with India’s leading sports broadcaster to bring the fastest hands in sport to screens across the country through 2027. The move is poised to give Indian table tennis the spotlight it has long chased.

    Under the agreement, JioStar will deliver live, multilingual coverage across Star Sports 2, Star Sports Khel, and Star Sports Tamil, along with streaming on JioHotstar in English, Hindi and Tamil. Season 6 of Indianoil UTT kicked off with behind-the-scenes programming on 12 May, building anticipation before the on-table action unfolds.

    “Over the past few years, Indian table tennis has made meaningful strides, and Indianoil UTT’s mission has been to accelerate that progress by providing a world-class platform for homegrown talent. Our partnership with JioStar for the next three seasons will help us deepen that impact by reaching more households, engaging new audiences, and laying a stronger foundation for the next generation of Indian table tennis stars”, said UTT co-promoters Vita Dani and Niraj Bajaj.

    This season’s player line-up promises a mix of star power and fresh energy. International aces like Aruna Quadri, Alvaro Robles, Bernadette Szocs, Adriana Diaz, and China’s Fan Siqi join India’s elite — Manika Batra, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Harmeet Desai, and Sreeja Akula. Rising domestic stars such as Diya Chitale, Payas Jain, Ankur Bhattacharjee, and Yashaswini Ghorpade round out the action-packed roster.

    The league will field eight franchises: Ahmedabad SG Pipers, Chennai Lions, Dabang Delhi TTC, Dempo Goa Challengers TT, Jaipur Patriots, Kolkata ThunderBlades, PBG Pune Jaguars, and U Mumba TT. Defending champions Dempo Goa Challengers, led by Harmeet Desai, are chasing their third consecutive title.

    Sanctioned by the Table Tennis Federation of India and co-promoted by Dani and Bajaj, Indianoil UTT continues to climb as one of the sport’s premier global properties. The 2024 edition clocked 20 million viewers across TV and OTT, marking a 1.3x year-on-year jump. With JioStar now in its corner, the league is aiming higher—in both reach and impact.