11 year old Hridaan Pol, student of Podar International School( CBSE) won the ‘Spin2Win’ Under-15 Open category Promotional table tennis tournament at PTKS, Vile Parle, yesterday evening. In the finals, Hridaan beat 11 year old Yuvraj Khandwala from Jamnabai Narsee School, with a narrow margin of 3-2 and winning the decider over extra points. Hridaan had earlier beaten Sparsh Agarwal 3-1 in the semi finals; while Yuvraj stopped the winning run of Halima Dhorajiwala , the only girl competitor who could reach semi final stage in this U-15 open category singles. The other young girl Ayushi Shirgaonkar, lost to Yuvraj Khandwala 1-3 in the quarter finals.
13 year old Halima, from St. Blaise School, had not only qualified for the main draw beating all the three boys in her group league; but, also continued with her winning run yesterday evening, when she knocked out Ishaan Kiyawat 3-2 and Sameer Sharma also 3-2 in the pre quarters and quarter finals respectively.Her main weapon of backhand jabs with long pimpled rubber were very well controlled by Yuvraj Khandwala, when she faced him in the semi finals.
In the Above -15 Open category, there were many upsets, with favourites Arnav Kshirsagar and Sharang Bhagdikar going down to Shashank Bisht 2-3 and Sagar Dhanu 1-3 respectively, in quarter finals. Shashank, however lost to Sagar Dhanu in straight games in first semi finals; while in the other semi finals Maruti Kasture also scored a comfortable win over Anupam Rajak. Later, in the finals, Sagar Dhanu proved his superiority over Maruti Kasture, ( 3-1) with his consistent forehand topspin and controlled game mixed with variations, during long rallies. This is the maiden title for Sagar, who is presently a Coach at Oberoi Spledour JVLR and Rustomjee, Juhu.