An intense battle for semifinal spots is on the cards as the CEAT Ultimate Table Tennis Powered by Kellogg’s gears up for the final leg at the Netaji Indoor Stadium here from Tuesday.

Barring Dabang Smashers, who seem to be better placed with 48 points, the other five teams will have to be at their best in their last matches to avoid missing out on the semifinal spots. 

Table tennis fans have responded enthusiastically to the tournament during the Pune and Delhi legs, turning up in thousands. They were rewarded with keenly contested matches and sterling performances from Indian stars, Manika Batra, Ahyika Mukheree, Gnanasekaran Sathiyan, Manav Thakkar and Sanil Shetty.

The Kolkata leg promises to be even more exciting with over Rs 3 crore at stake as prize money. The semifinals will be played at the NIS on June 29 (Friday) and June 30 (Saturday), followed by the finale on July 1 (Sunday).

The six teams have one match each left, with favourites Smashers and last year’s finalists Empowerji Challengers beginning the Kolkata proceedings on Tuesday. 

The smashers have been in tremendous form, winning three out of their four ties. The Simon Gauzy-led Challengers, on the other hand, have won only one tie, making their task that much tougher. 

Date: June 26, 2018 (Tuesday)

Venue: Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Indoor Stadium, Kolkata

Head to head: Matches played 2, Challengers 2, Smashers 0

Points in Season 2: Challengers 36, Smashers 48

Players to watch out

Men: Simon Gauzy, World No. 12, Manav Thakkar, U18 World No. 2; G Sathiyan (World No 44), Yoshida Masaki (World No. 27).

Women: Lee Ho Ching, (World No. 20); Manika Batra (World No. 80), Sakura Mori (World No. 28), Adriana Diaz (World No. 38).

The squads

Empowerji Challengers: Men: Simon Gauzy (France), Manav Thakkar, Tiago Apolonia (Portugal) World No. 40, Arjun Ghosh. Women: Lee Ho Ching (Hong Kong), Georgina Pota (Hungary) World No. 37, Divya Deshpande, Prapti Sen. Coaches: Muralidhara Rao and Peter Engel.

Dabang Smashers TTC:  Men: Gnanasekaran Sathiyan, Sanish Ambekar, Yoshida Masaki (Japan), Cedric Nuytinck (Belgium) World No. 52. Women: Manika Batra, Archana Kamath (U18 World No. 12), Sakura Mori (Japan), Adriana Diaz (Puerto Rico). Coaches: Sachin Shetty, Andrei Filimon (Romania).