PANJIM: Vaibhav Dahibhhate and Tanisi Kirtani won the men’s and ladies singles titles at all-Goa major ranking table tennis tournament, organized by Rotary Club of Panjim in collaboration with the Sports Authority of Goa, played at Indoor Stadium, Campal, recently.
Tanisi won the sub-junior and junior girls events also to emerge triple crown winner while Nagesh Verekar won a double crown, winning the mini cadet and cadet boys singles titles.
In men’s singles, Agnelo Naik, who had earlier knocked out top seed Dheeraj Rai and Diljeet Velingkar, was in rather subdued form as he lost 13-11, 7-11, 11-5, 11-6, 9-11, 11-8 to the recruit from Customs and Central Excise. For Vaibhav, it was sweet victory, his maiden one after a round of 52 finals.
In ladies singles, it was a near flawless performance as top seed Tanisi clinically dispatched Eleanor do Rosario 11-6, 11-4, 11-5 to win the title.
In sub-junior girls, Tanisi beat Urmila Mense 8-11, 11-5, 11-3, 11-4. The junior girl’s final was a repeat contest between the two, a high-quality affair that eventually swung Tanisi’s way by the slimmest of margins. Goa’s golden girl came back from three match points down in the fourth set to win the epic battle, 11-4, 7-11, 6-11, 14-12, 11-4.
The sub-junior and junior boy’s finals were fought between Siddhant Parekh and Weslie do Rosario with both sharing even honours. In sub-juniors, Siddhant beat Weslie 11-5, 8-11, 16-14, 11-6 whereas there was a reversal of fortunes in the junior boys with Weslie beating Siddhant 11-8, 7-11, 11-7, 15-13.
In mini-cadets, Nagesh Verekar beat Shantesh Mhapsekar 11-8, 11-9, 11-4 while he beat tenacious Vaidik Shrivastava 11-6, 9-11, 13-11, 11-5 in the Cadet Boys finals to win both these events.
Najida Sheikh got the better of Sneha Mesta in five tough games as she won 8-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-8, 13-11 to emerge girl’s mini cadet winner. The cadet girls was also a close match with Aditi Chodankar registering a hard fought 11-9,11-9, 4-11, 13-11 win over Sneha Rane.
In veterans doubles, Arun Naik and Anand Naik were in prime form as they blew apart Vishnu Kolwalkar and Uday Divekar, winning 11-8, 11-9, 11-6.
Dr Rufino Monteiro, Chairman of Goa Football Development Council was the chief guest. Rt. Manoj Patil, President; Satish Shinde, former TT player; Vero Nunes, President of Goa Table Tennis Association (GTTA); Vishnu Kolwalkar, Secretary, GTTA; Rotarians Sayiprakash Raikar, Gaurish Dhond, Sunil Parekh and Bhalchandra Amonkar were also present.
