Abhidnya Sawant, the current state doubles champion and his old doubles partner Prasad Shetty, outgunned Shlok Ramchandran and Aditya Pandya to bag the men’s doubles crown in the Maharashtra State Open Doubles Challenge, held at Goregaon Sports Club here last night. The win proved to be welcome back for Prasad in particular as he was playing after recovering from a shoulder injury. All the winning pairs in various categories received Rs 10,000 each while the runners-up got half that amount.
Abhidnya Sawant (R)& Prasad Shetty(L) with their men’s doubles trophies
The top seed pair however, had a tough time in the first game as the younger pair of Shlok and lefthander Aditya was equally aggressive, but once they lost it over extra points, the second game was totally dominated by Abhidnya and Prasad as they ran away with the title with a 22-20, 21-13 win.
Aishwarya N & Vallari Bukane
However, Shlok had the consolation of winning the mixed doubles title as he with Farah Moloobhai as his partner, defeated Harsh Jagdane and Pooja Devlekar 21-15, 21-18 in the mixed doubles final. Shlok’s partner, Farah, who too was in line for a double, however, too lost the women’s doubles final to top seeded Aishwarya N. and Vallari Bukane 21-19, 21-15.
All the winners of the Maharashtra State Open Doubles Challenge tourney (from left) – Aishwarya N (women;s doubles( Shlok Ramchandran and Farah Moloobhai (Mixed doubles_ Prasad Shetty and Abhidnya Sawant (men’s doubles) and Vallari Bukane (Women’s doubles).
Results of all the Finals:
Mixed (+70) doubles: Fabian Denis/Neesha Springett bt Mahesh Chhabria/Archana Singh 21-18, 21-14.
MEN’S: (+80) doubles: Ayaz Billawala/ Shailesh Dagga bt Yogesh Padukone/Sanjeev Mahajan 21-11, 21-15. (+90) doubles: Hayat Khan/Rajat Moitra bt Rajiv Sampat/Ajay Srivastava 21-14, 21-13 (+100) doubles: Gautam Ashra/Shailesh Dagga bt Sanjay Sharma/Ayaz Billawala 21-13, 21-15.
Women’s doubles: (1) Aishawarya Narayan Moorthy /Vallari Bukane bt Pooja Devlekar/ Farah Moloobhbai 21-19, 21-15.
Men’s open doubles: (1) Abhidnya Sawant/Prasad Shetty bt Shlok Ramchandran/Aditya Pandya 22-20, 21-13.
Mixed doubles: (1) Shlok Ramchandran/Farah Moloobhai bt Harsh Jagdane/Pooja Devlekar 21-18, 21-15.