IITan Sharang Bhagdikar and Sudhir Kidav from MCF Club Borivali, put up a good show, winning all their 3 matches in group league of Men’s Singles and Men’s Veterans’ 40+ Singles respectively, at Khar Gymkhana late yesterday evening. This 4 Star District Ranking All Mumbai Table Tennis tournament organised by Khar Gymkhana and Sonsored by DCB Bank, is being played under the auspices of TSTTA and MCDTTA.
Sharang while playing his Men’s Singles group match, first upset seasoned Gaurav Parte 3-1 and later went on to beat Santosh Jain 3-0. He was however stretched to five games by Abhay Khandar before winning his third match. Actually, all the four players from this group were very good and it was very difficult to predict, who will qualify for the main draw. Sharang who topped from his group, will now qualify for the main draw in Men’s Singles along with Gaurav Parte.
In the Men’s Veterans’ 40+ Singles, Sudhir Kidav who entered as a Placeholder( Dummy Entry) surprised other two players from his group, namely- Kapil Kumar & Vinod Iyer. Actually, Mangesh Sakpal from this group did not report for his match. And therefore, Sudhir ‘s name was added by the Chief Referee in this group, as Kapil and Vinod would have both walked into the main draw playing just one match against each other. As their match was over, the Umpire pointed out that a player was added in their group. Though Vivod Iyer played and lost against Sudhir Kidav, Kapil Kumar played under protest, giving a letter before playing his match against Sudhir, which he lost. This enabled Sudhir to top from his group, before qualifying for the main draw of this event. Kapil Kumar also qualified for the main draw, but in 2nd position from his group. Among others, who also qualified for the main draw, from the six group matches of Men’s Veterans 40+ played yesterday, were Gurcharan Singh, Mayur Dusija, Sarosh Shroff, Kinzal Vadhera, Rupesh Gharat, Parikshit Jain, Ojas Choksi, Kapil Kumar, Rajesh Singh & Ulhas Shirke.