PANJIM: Forty four-year-old Ganesh Pai Vernekar stole the applause during his men’s singles match of the debut edition of Bandodkar Panjim Gymkhana Open 2024, clinching a hard-fought win 7-6 (7-4) against Caetano Fernandes, at the Panjim Gymkhana court, Campal, here, on Thursday.
The match lasted for nearly an hour, with Ganesh and Caetano fighting for each point in the match, which was eventually decided by a tie-breaker.
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In other matches in the men’s singles category, Prajat Halankar beat Sreenath Sreenivasan (6-1), Santosh Gorawar beat Shay Walke (6-1), Prince De Silva beat Raviraj (6-1), Mano Chhabra beat Rishabh Beria (6-1), Raju Kundaikar beat Cherian (6-4), Anurag Agrawal beat Pankaj Naik (6-0), Siddharth beat Sandesh Satardekar (6-1) and Mano Chhabra beat Pankaj Nanoskar (6-2).
In the boys U-18 category, Darsh Pai beat Alec Barreto(6-1), Vivaan Agrawal beat Vihaan Krishnan (6-1), Kishna Volvoikar beat Aarav (6-1), Shay Walke beat Avanish Pillankar (6-2), Shreyas Patil beat Shaurya Verlekar (6-0), Kyan Mavany beat Arhan Gaunkar (6-1), while Ethan de Ataide and Vidaal Menezes faced a tough challenge from Devaansh Naik and Adianta Devaraya, eventually defeating the latters (7-5) and 7-6) respectively.
In the mixed doubles, Atika/Lyndon Pinto beat Astha/Awnish Singh (6-1), Aishwarya/Siddharth beat Sania Lotliker/Joao Mergulhao (6-4), Vidhi Naik/Pankaj Naik beat Tvisha Sardesai/Anup Sardesai (6-2), Meera Kamat/Venctexa Burye beat Smita Soni/Vinod Chandra(6-1), Anna VK/Gary Steele beat Anika Kumar/ Dunstan Dias (6-3), Tithee Bhoomkar/Devaansh Naik beat Anjali Phillip/Sreenath Sreenivasan (6-4), Supriya Sankaran/Jai Gill beat Hazel Fernandes/Wilfred Mascarenhas (6-2) and Julia Shakirova /Sergey Romanov beat Junette Rodrigues /Mervin Soares(6-1).
Contesting in the men’s doubles event, Prince/Kuldeep beat Prithvi Naik/Rehaan Diaz (6-4), Ganesh Vernekar/Bhalchandra Gaitonde beat Lyndon Pinto/Dunstan Dias (6-4) while Ganesh Vernekar and Bhalchandra Gaitonde teamed up again to beat Prajat/Karan (6-2).
Young tennis prodigy Vidhi Naik advanced to the semi-finals defeating Tvisha Sardesai (6-3), so did Avni and Simran Bundela, who defeated their respective opponents Bhaavya and Neeraja (6-2) and (6-0) in the girls U-18 category.
In the veterans 55+ doubles event, Surjit Lamba/Robert D’Souza beat Ishan Bakhale/Dr Lucio Fernandes (6-2), Rajnish Dhall/Caetano Fernandes beat David Mendonsa/Manoj Pandey (7-6) (7-2) advancing to the semifinals in the category.
In the veterans 45+ men’s doubles category, Mano Chhabra teamed up with Bulu Godinho to demolish Sunil Signapurkar and Wayn Fernandes without losing a single game. So did Sameer Kakodkar and Laxman Iyer, who defeated Mervin Soares and Valentin Fernandes (6-0).
In the two matches held in the veterans 55+ men’s singles category, Caetano Fernandes beat Jude Cardozo (6-3), while Sameer Kakodkar beat Rajnish Dhall (6-0), while in the 45+ men’s singles, Rajnish beat Laxman Iyer (7-5), Sachin Dukle defeated Sunil Signapurkar (6-0) and Dimitry vanquished Rajesh Bundela (6-0).
