Team Herald
CHANDOR: Top seed Sanmay Paranjape and number two seed Dheeraj Rai cruised into the men’s singles finals of the 4th Naguesh and Sushila Verenker Memorial All Goa Major Ranking Table Tennis Tournament, organized by Chandor Club under the aegis of Goa Table Tennis Association(GTTA), at Chandor Club Complex.
All the focus was on Sanmay, a Delhi player, who has taken a transfer to play for Goa this season and he did not disappoint.
In the first semi finals, Sanmay, ranked India number 40, nicely hit the groove from the word go to register a comfortable 4 – 0 win over former State champion Noel Noronha and thereby justify his top billing.
There were occasions when Noel played really well but Sanmay was undoubtedly the better of the two on the day. In the other semis, Dheeraj got the better of Shantesh Mapsekar, winning 4 -1.
Shantesh who won a few silver medals in India Ranking circuit in cadets category last season looked like putting up a fight when he won the fourth set but the seasoned Dheeraj lifted his game in the next set itself to enter the finals where he will vie for the Men’s title.
Earlier, Shantesh played out of his skin to upset Diljeet Velingkar 4-2 in the quarter-finals while veteran warhorse Noel Noronha prevailed 4-1 over Kewal Tamhankar.
Anshuman Agarwal and Nagesh Verenkar were the other two players who ended up on the losing note in the other two quarter-finals matches.
