Liam Pitchford and David McBeath head out to California dreaming of a big start to the third season of Major League Table Tennis this weekend.
McBeath is once again part of the Texas Smash team – which won the inaugural season – while Pitchford is again on the roster of the Florida Crocs.
David McBeath in action
They could meet in the first set of matches in Pleasanton, California, with Crocs and Smash due to face off on Saturday.
Before that, Crocs open their campaign against Portland Paddlers and Smash start against Bay Area Blasters on Friday, before completing their set of three matches on Sunday.
With two new teams and several new players, the season promises to deliver even more excitement.
New York Slice and Atlanta Blazers join the line-up, taking the overall strength of the league to 10 teams, while the Spinners franchise has moved from Seattle to Los Angeles.
And MLTT is also welcoming two Japanese stars – Yuya Oshima was the first pick in the draft, going to Atlanta, while Koki Niwa was snapped up by New York.
Austria’s Robert Gardos has been picked up by Chicago Wind, while Joao Monteiro of Portugal will be a team-mate of McBeath at Smash.
Pitchford, who was the standout singles player last season, is relishing the chance to get back into the action.
Liam Pitchford celebrates for the Florida Crocs
He said: “I’m looking forward to it. Obviously quite a few stronger players have signed up for it this year, so it should be more exciting.
“Koki Niwa and Yuya Oshima are obviously great players, I played against them a lot in the past and it will be nice to play against them again.
“Last season personally, I won 14 out of 15 matches in the singles, which I was happy with, but the team didn’t do that well. Hopefully this year we can perform better as a team and win the matches we probably let slip last year, and we get to the play-offs – that’s the aim.
“Dave’s team are playing as well, so it will be nice to be there with him – we’ll see how it goes.”
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