How a family holiday played its part in birth of Ultimate Table Tennis

The Indian sports landscape has undergone a significant transformation over the past decade with professional leagues emerging across various disciplines. Among them, Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) stands out as a pioneering effort that has elevated the sport of table tennis.

The seeds for UTT's inception were sown with a causal conversation during a family holiday in Singapore almost a decade back in 2015.

Having already established the Indian Super League outfit Chennaiyin FC a year back, Vita Dani was eager to create a league which would change the future of Indian table tennis. The fact that her son, Mudit, played the sport also played its part.

Encouraged by her husband Jalaj, Vita Dani reached out to Steve Dainton, who was working with the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Asia-Pacific & Marketing Office in Singapore then, for an appointment.

Dainton, now the Group CEO at ITTF, obliged and the the family vacation soon turned into a important business meet – one that would define table tennis in India for years to come.

"We didn't know him [Dainton] at all," Vita Dani, the promoter and co-founder of UTT said in a conversation with The Bridge. "We went to meet him and told him our dreams to host a league in India for table tennis.

"We were on a holiday and so it was all very causal. He just said we must do something but I am not sure how seriously he took our dream," she added with a chuckle.

A year later Niraj Bajaj, a former national table tennis champion, joined hands with Vita Dani and India's first-ever table tennis league took off in 2017.

The initial years were not without their hurdles. Attracting top-tier talent in the inaugural 2017 season proved challenging, as many players were hesitant to commit to an unproven entity. This is a common pain point for new sports leagues, as credibility and a proven track record are vital for athlete recruitment and ultimately, competitive quality.

However, the league has since grown both on and off the table. A few higher-ranked players are now eager to come back season after season, while a franchise is now profitable and one other has broken even on the investments made.

"We are a league owner and also a franchise owner [Chennaiyin FC]. We do understand there are some challenges in terms of economics," said Vita Dani.

"We have made it a centralised, low-cost, high impact model so that the load is taken off the franchises, so that it becomes more efficient. Many of the leagues are now looking at our model to look at how they can reduce their costs," she added.

The Ultimate Table Tennis, over the years, has also brought in some innovations in how the sport is played and consumed on television. The "golden point" after two paddlers are level at 10-10, which was first introduced in the league is now being tried out elsewhere.

There is also a tournament planned for junior players ahead of UTT's upcoming edition in Ahmedabad. It will see the use of a multi-coloured ball, which is white on one part and orange on the other. If the experiment succeeds, it will be implemented in the UTT as well in future.

After recruiting players via draft in the first five seasons, the league brought in player auctions for the first time ahead of its sixth season earlier this year.

Fan Siqi, the only Chinese competitor in UTT, emerged as the most sought out player in the auction at Rs 19.70 lakh.

However, unlike, what you see in the Indian Premier League or Pro Kabaddi League, the Ultimate Table Tennis followed a tokenised approach. This meant no real money was used but it made the player recruitment process dynamic.

"We are still in nascent stage. I don't think we can afford to spend that kind of money on players, but it brought in a lot of dynamics like team strategy and which player comes at which time," said Vita Dani, reflecting on the tokenised approach.

The last edition of the Ultimate Table Tennis in 2024 raked in 20 million viewers across TV and OTT. It is an impressive number, but Vita Dani isn't very satisfied.

"To be truthful, I am not satisfied," she said. "There is a lot more potential. Eyeballs are the crux to the entire model – be it for sponsorship, broadcast, or fan engagement.

"I feel these numbers are not good enough and I am greedy as far as growth is concerned," she added.

From a casual meeting during a family holiday to 20 million viewers ten years later, the UTT has taken Indian table tennis to greater heights.

Since its first edition in 2017, India has steadily grown as a force in the sport with 15 Commonwealth Games medals, seven Asian Championships medals, and three medals at the Asian Games. Players like the teenaged Ankur Bhattacharjee have shot to global fame, thanks to their exploits in the league.

With the 2025 Ultimate Table Tennis set to commence on May 31, the eyes are now on how much bigger and better the league can get on its sixth iteration.