Raegan Albuquerque has been going great guns of late as he scalped toppled top seed Chinmay Somiaya in the semifinals and followed it by outwitting second seeded Sagar Kasture in the action-packed men’s singles final of the MCF-TSTTA 4 Star All-Mumbai District ranking Table tennis tournament at MCF Club Borivali late last night.
While Raegan dropped a game to Chinmay before romping home for a 7-11, 11-3, 12-10, 11-4 win, his victory over Sagar,who is coached by former state player Nilesh Pandirkar, is perhaps the only player in the Maharashtra, employing penholder grip with deadly affect. The goodly crowd roaring with delight saw both the players hitting and counter-hitting all the way. Raegan though dropped the opening game, he was in command thereafter and led 3-1 before Sagar struck a purple patch as he won the fifth game, but Raegan showing much better control trumphed 4-2.
So too exciting two teenagers, top seed Ananya Chande and Sampada Bhiwandkar played aggressively, which kept their supporters on the edge of their seats all through the tie. Though Sampada trailed in the beginning and lost the first game, she won the tensely fought second game (19-17) and which saw her showing more controlled attack as she won the next three games to clinch the title.
Left-hander Nishant Kulkarni, a former state player, now involved more in coaching, showed glimpse of yesteryears strokes as he beat his younger rival Ashish Patankar11-8, 14-16, 11-9, 11-9. Incidentally, Ashish, earlier in the semifinals, went through tough time before scoring over TSTTA secretary Sameer Bhate 13-11, 11-7, 11-7 in the semifinals.
Results :
Women’s singles (Final): Sampada Bhiwandkar bt Ananya Chande 5-11, 19-17, 11-6, 11-3, 11-9.
Men’s singles (Final): Raegan Albuquerque bt Sagar Kasture 9-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-6, 9-11, 11-3. (Semifinals): Raegan Albuquerque bt (1)-Chinmaya Somaiya 7-11, 11-3, 12-10, 11-4; Sagar Kasture bt Sharveya Samant 16-14, 11-9, 3-11, 9-11, 11-7, 11-7.
Veteran Men’s +40 singles (Final): (1)-Nishant Kulkarni bt Sameer Bhate 11-8, 14-16, 11-9, 11-9. (Semifinals): (1)-Nishant Kulkarni bt Kedar Kasbekar 11-5, 11-8, 11-6; Sameer Bhate bt Naveen Salian 13-11, 11-7, 11-7.( Quarter Finalists):Suhas Rane, Ketan Palwankar, Sarosh Shroff & Amit Modi.
Veteran Women’s +40 singles (Final): Vinita Shukla bt Rajeshwari Mhetre 11-5, 11-7, 11-9. (Semi Finalists) : Reena Bhagat & Shravani Dhapre .