The 4th MMTTC Masters Table Tennis Tournament which begins tomorrow morning with the team championship events has attracted 200 participants from all over Maharashtra. This tournament is being held in memory of Shri. Uday Parulekar and Shukracharya Raorane. There are 21 teams competing in the 39+ age group, while 15 teams will compete in in the 59+ age groups. There will be separate Women’s 39+ team event; but women are allowed to take part in the open 39+ and 59+ team events.
Solapur ‘A’ team comprising of Manish rawat, Dr. Nitin Toshniwal, Aatmaram Gangarde, Prasad Naik and Dr. Ligarde look favourites in 39+ team event. However, They will have to compete with Mumbai’s Team Avengers comprising of Salian brothers- Kiran and Naveen along with Suraj Chandrashekhar and Team Smart Masters( Mumbai) comprising of Kedar Kasbekar, Bhavesh Shah, Sharad Grover and Kushal Shah and also SAMBAHADUR team from Mumbai comprising of Sameer Bhate, Suhas Rane, Rupesh Gharat. There are other well balanced sides like Team Art, Like Minded , Siddhanchal ‘A’ and ‘B’, PTKS and Nashik team T- LAC comprising of Dr. Amol Sarode, Divyendu Chandurkar, Abhijit Patil and Satish Patil.
Kalidas Sports Club, Mulund ‘A’ team comprising of well balanced side of Prakash Kelkar, Avinash Kothari, Dr. Ashok Kalambe and Percy Patel look favourites in 59+ team event. But, they too are likely to face tough opposition from teams like KRC-Kaka team comprising of Girish Acharya, Anil rasam, Rajesh Mudam, Yogesh Desai, Pramod Desai, besides teams like The BAWAS represented by Percy Mehta and Sarosh Shroff, Rock Solid team of Atul Deshmukh and Jogesh Motwani & 3 Tigers comprising of Sanjay Mehta, Mahesh Shetye and Prafull Wagh.
What is interesting to note that two All Women teams ‘S- Square’ comprising of Shravani, Shivpriya , Ujwala and ‘Smart Team’ comprising of Snehal, Swati and Sadiya are also getting ready to fight the battle against the stronger Men’s 39+ teams. World Masters’ Silver medalist Suhasini Bakre will represent Team Magzmumbai along with Ulhas Shirke in the 59+ open team event. One thing is sure that these women players will get very good practice playing matches in this open team event.
Speaking about this event, Maharashtra Masters’ Table Tennis Committee ( MMTTC) said, “ This is our fourth tournament in the 2023-2024 season and I am happy that like the previous three tournament, this tournament has also received very good response. With participation from most of the top Master TT players from Maharashtra, I am sure, this tournament will achieve grand success. I am really thankful to Mr. Arwind Prabhoo for all the help and at the same time I am grateful to all my MMTTC committee members for their excellent team work and all the participants for displaying their strong support and unity.”