Today, Major League Table Tennis is excited to announce that Senura Silva has been picked up from free agency by the Bay Area Blasters, joining permanently for the rest of the 2023-24 season. He will replace Tianrui Zhang.
“I was so happy when I found out because I didn’t expect [MLTT] to want me full-time,” Silva said. “That’s a huge opportunity that a lot of people cannot get. I feel like I was really fortunate.”
Silva made his first league appearance in Week 1 as a free agent substitution for the Princeton Revolution, where he immediately turned heads with a strong performance. His former Princeton teammates were some of the first people from the league to congratulate him.
“I’m really thankful for them, I think they’re a big reason I was drafted, and they invited me to play and I felt like I did really well,” Silva said. “So half of the credit goes to them.”
That said, he’s looking forward to joining his new teammates in Texas for the West Division clash in Katy on Oct. 27-29 (get your tickets here!), and is hoping to start learning from them straight away. Especially Jinbao MA, who is coming off a quarterfinal finish at the WTT Star Contender Lanzhou 2023.
“I’m really looking forward to meeting Jinbao because we all know he did a really great job in WTT, and I’m really looking to get advice from him on my game plan,” Silva said.
The addition of Silva and Jinbao, who missed Bay Area’s first matches in Week 2, should be a welcome boost for head coach Maggie Tian.
“Obviously we have a really good team, and I think we can do really well,” Silva said.
As for what fans can expect from Silva on the court, he said he’s always working to be as aggressive as possible.
“I’m an attacking player, I just try to be fearless,” he said. “In this league, I want to put pressure on my opponents. And that’s the main target this first month. Don’t hesitate, go for big shots when I have the chance. But I also have to be consistent.”
For fans that can’t travel to see Silva’s debut, make sure to subscribe to Major League Table Tennis’ YouTube page, where all matches will be streamed live.