Team Herald
MAPUSA: Prutha Parrikar and Dheeraj Rai were crowned Ladies and Men’s singles champions, taking home glittering trophies along with a prize purse in the Rotary Geno All Goa Major Ranking Table Tennis Tournament organised by Rotary Club of Mapusa in collaboration with Goa Table Tennis Association & SAG, at TT Hall, Peddem Sports complex.
Prutha Parrikar stole the show with a double crown of titles, adding the Junior Girls singles title to her kitty. Prutha was in sensational form in the finals while registering identical 3-0 wins over Janvi Naik Dalal in Ladies singles and Najida Sheikh in Junior Girls singles to wind up an eventful campaign.
In the men’s final, Dheeraj played with good aggression and control to oust Shantesh Mapsekar 4-0.
For Shantesh, a sub junior player, it was the culmination of a good campaign in men’s section, being the youngest player to reach the final in recent times.
Ruchi Kirtani and Rishan Sheikh made it four in a row each, winning the mini cadets girls and boys titles respectively.
While Ruchi had it easy against Anvi Nadkarni winning 3-0, Rishan Shaikh was made to sweat hard during his 3-2 win over Atharv Dhulapkar.
The cadets final predictably went the way of Trisha Verlekar who downed Ruchi Kirtani 3-0, while Aaron Farias dropped a set on way to a 3-1 win over Khushal Naik. Najida Sheikh and Trisha Verlekar both played exceptionally well to turn the sub junior girls final into a pulsating contest.
The two traded sets to make it two sets a piece. In the final set, Najida held her composure towards the closing stages to surge forward to a 3-2 win.
It was field day for Nagesh Verenker in sub junior boys final. The young boy appeared in full command while playing his arch compatriot Shantesh Mapsekar, executing brilliant strokes to register a confident 3-1 win over his opponent.
Nagesh who was leading by two sets to one in the Junior boys final against Anshuman Agarwal looked poised to win twin titles.
However, the pendulum of fortune swung to the other end with Anshuman wresting the fourth as well as fifth set to annex the title
