New Delhi, Jun 23 (PTI) India's top players will battle for honours and glory in the inaugural Taekwondo Premier League (TPL) which gets underway here on Saturday.

India no.1 player Prithiviraj Chauhan, who has won several medals at the international stage, and no. 2 Shivan Shetty will spearhead the field.

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"I am hopeful of taking my team (Maharashtra Avengers) deep into the league. We are all very excited and are looking forward to the competition," Chauhan said.

India no. 3 Nitish Bharadwaj (Lucknow Nawabs) and Asian Championship bronze medallist Naveen Sandhu (Rajasthan Rebels) will be among the other attractions.

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The TPL founders and team owners met a special delegation from World Taekwondo, who have arrived here for the league.

The delegation was led by Grandmaster Jun Lee, a nine-time Dan Black Belt, the highest achievement in the sport.

In the first edition, 12 teams will fight it our for honours.

Each team boasts of a mentor, a coach and five players, including two substitutes. In all, 19 matches will be played before the champions are crowned in the 58.1kg-67.9kg category.

The matches will be played in round-robin format and two teams from each group will advance to the quarterfinals, followed by semifinals and final.

Each match will be played in the best of five format and will have five rounds of 90 seconds each in which three players can compete.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)