India’s talented rising table tennis star Divyanshi Bhowmick of Ryan International School, CBSE Kandivali (Mumbai), has bagged triple crown in the MCF- TSTTA 4 Star All Mumbai District ranking Table Tennis tournament, which concluded yesterday evening at MCF Club, Borivali. 12 year old Divyanshi who being a top seeded player in the Girls Under-15 category, was allowed to play in the Girls Under -17 and also in Girls Under -19 . And she proved her supremacy in all the three events, winning successively against Vaishnavi Jaiswal (3-0), Urvi Churi (3-0) and Women’s singles champion of this tournament -Sampada Bhiwandkar (4-1) respectively.
This is for the second time this year, Divyanshi has bagged a triple crown, besides giving notable performance by winning medals at the state, national and international TT tournaments. The secret behind her success is her planning and execution while playing all her matches. It seems, she does her home work very well, before arriving for her matches, as she doesn’t need continuous tips and instructions from anyone, while the match is on, not even during the breaks. Instead, she spends that valuable time thinking about her next moves, unlike her opponents. It is her self confidence, proficiency to read her opponent and full concentration during the play, has enabled her to win matches in higher age groups. Moral Support from her encouraging family members proved most important for her and they were always around for her matches, to boost her confidence.
Another talented youngster Jash Modi who earlier lost in the Men’s singles to equally talented junior Sharveya Samant, managed to win the title of Boys’ Under 19 singles, defeating Akshat Jain ( 4-1) in the finals. MSL player Dhruv Shah knocked out top seeded Vineet Deepak 3-2 to win the Boys U-17 title, while Vivek Rohera beat Aarav Sanghvi to lift the Boys Under-15 title.
In the Girls Under -13 event, the rising little star 11 year old Myraa Sharad Sangelkar from Pro TT Academy emerged the winner defeating Ayaana Beddingwala in the finals. She is trained by former State and National level TT players Rajendra Sawant and Nilesh Pandirkar at their Pro TT Academy, Thane. They have also trained another finalist in this tournament Sagar kasture at their academy.
In the Girls Under-11 section little Vedika Jaiswal younger sister of Vaishnavi Jaiswal ,won against Ritttanya Deolekar in the finals, to claim the title , while in the Boys Under -11 section Ayaan Athar beat Rishi Bhangadia to win the title in this event. The Boys Under -13 finals was won by Zain Shaikh who defeated Aakarshan Yadav in three straight games.
It was a well organized tournament, with excellent management from both MCF club and TSTTA officals with good support received from Referees, Umpires, Badminton department of MCF and support staff at the venue. In the Men’s Veterans section which had received maximum entries, group league matches were conducted with two players from each group qualifying for the main draw. For this main draw, as per the prevailing practice only those in No. 2 position in their respective groups are invited to pick up the chits; but this time even on trial basis the players in No.1 position were invited to pick up the chits to make the process more transparent. And this process made all the veteran players happy. Thanks to Samir Bhate for introducing this system; but it should be introduced in other big major events too, where there are more number of entries.
On the final day,during the concluding session, Mr. Milind Manohar , a close friend of Mr. Sameer Bhate (Hon. Secretary of TSTTA), showed a fine gesture by sponsoring all the trophies and medals given to all the prize winners. Adv. Satish R Sharma, Hon. Secretary of MCF Club was the chief guest and he along with other MCF officials and TSTTA officials gave away the prizes to the winners. In addition to trophies and medals, TSTTA offered a total Prize money of Rs. 1.15 lakh to the winners, R-up, S/F’s and in some events ( with more number of entries) upto Q/F’s . In short, this tournament was a grand success.
( All Photos By: Ulhas Shirke)