2017 turned out to be a landmark year for the sport of Table Tennis. The sport which was perceived to be a recreational activity was revolutionized in India with a number of innovations in the game with the arrival of a first of its kind league, CEAT Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT). 

The player draft involved a vibrant blend of many foreign players, along with the top Indian paddlers. Post the draft, the stage was set for a competitive league which featured young as well as experienced paddlers. 

Earlier in the year, a few changes were made to some of the rules of the sport, making it even more enthralling and exciting for fans. Let’s look at the new innovations that were brought in: 

Golden Point: 

In table tennis, it is not a surprise when the score is tied at 10-10. During such an event, a tie-breaker is played out to declare the winner. However, in CEAT UTT, the concept of a ‘Golden Point’ was introduced. If a game is tied at 10 points each, both the sides will play for the 11th point (Golden Point). The golden point will be the decider. This format had been introduced for the first time in table tennis. One of DHFL Maharashtra United’s overseas players, Hong Kong’s ace, Wong Chun Ting was upbeat about the rule leading into the season; “It's an interesting format and I'll be playing it for the first time. It'll be interesting to see how the players adapt to the situations.” 

The change was well received and brought about the best from the players when the Golden Point was in play. The rule kept fans and teams on the edge of their seats right through the season.

Ball Boys and multi-ball play: 

Ball boys have traditionally been a part of sports like Football, Cricket, Tennis – it wasn’t a concept associated with Table Tennis even though the ball would be hit hard and beyond the table, especially with the smashes. However, CEAT UTT adapted the ball-boy ideology for the very first time in the sport along with multi-ball play wherein multiple match balls were used during a match. This concept was later implemented in one of the ITTF Tournaments as it helps to save time. When asked about this concept to one of the ball boys, this is what our guest writer, T K Srikanth had to say, “It is thrilling that I will get an opportunity to see world class players in action and that too, from so close. CEAT Ultimate Table Tennis is a great concept, and is definitely going to change the sport of table tennis in India.”

A broad observation that came out of the implementation of multi-ball play during Ties was that the game became quicker. The gap between a point and the next serve, when the ball was smashed away, reduced considerably.

Statistics:

Most sports in the modern era rely heavily on data, analytics and statistics. Numbers can paint a huge picture of how a sport is played, and even how it shouldn’t be played. It helps teams & players find out the strengths and weaknesses of opponents, and helps lay out an effective plan of action and attack during the game. Table Tennis were low-flyers when it came to stats before, during and after a game, the points scored by a player in each Tie was perhaps the most consistently recorded number, and there was very little supporting as well as in-depth data. 

CEAT UTT dived deeper into the numbers game and provided stats for each player such as ‘Super Serves’, ‘Lucky Points’, ‘Heat Maps’, ‘Defensive Service Winners’, ‘Offensive Service Winners’, ‘Service Points Won’ and many more. This helped in various ways, making it possible for the teams to find out the strong points of each player and the areas where they can improve. In a nut-shell, the amount of data associated with CEAT UTT helped teams & players make an elaborate SWOT analysis.

There was one other innovation as well, that was brought into play this year. Players had a time limit of 10 seconds to execute their serves. This was done to fasten the pace of the game and to make it even more interesting. 

These tweaks have captured the attention of the Indian audiences and will keep them excited for the second season, something that has always been CEAT UTT’s objective. Watching professional players battle it out against each other was a sight to behold and eventually helped India's young and talented paddlers learn new tricks of the trade. It must be said that the game has improved a lot in the past 12 months or so, and the advent of CEAT UTT has captured the interest of many people who will expect bigger and better things in the upcoming year. Table tennis has become more dynamic than ever!