Second seed Siddharth Nandal easily defeated Arvind Subramanian by a 63-19 (21-6, 21-3, 21-10) cumulative score, to claim the men’s singles crown in the Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana (WCG) organised 2nd All-India Open Racketlon Championship, played at the WCG courts, Santacruz.
Over 70 players from all across the country participated in this Racketlon championship, with competition consisting of four racket sports — table tennis, badminton, squash and lawn tennis.
In the summit round, Nandal outplayed Subramanian by quickly winning the table tennis match 21-6 and then scored a 21-3 win in the badminton event to grab a 42-9 lead. He scored another 21-10 win in the squash match to clinch the match and did not have to play the tennis event.
Earlier, in the semi-finals, Nandal outclassed Vikram Chaufla, winning the first three events to march to a 63-40 (21-17, 21-12, 21-11) win. Fancied and experienced top seed Ashotosh Pednekar, unfortunately suffered an ankle injury and was forced to concede a walkover to Subramanian in the first semi-final.
Pednekar, had earlier won the men’s doubles crown. He along with Monesh S. got the better of Gourav Rakshit and Siddharth Nandal 76-71 (20-22, 21-11, 15-21, 20-17) points to emerge champions.
Sanjeev Kumar lifted the men’s 45+ singles title defeating top-seed Gourav Rakshit74-54(21-19, 21-12, 14-21, 18-16) in the final. .
Results – Men’s singles – Semi-finals: Arvind Subramanian W/o 1-Ashutosh Pednekar; 2-Siddharth Nandal beat Vikram Chaufla 21-17, 21-12, 21-11.Final: 2-Siddharth Nandal beat Arvind Subramanian 21-6, 21-3, 21-10.
Men’s 45+ singles – Semi-finals: 1-Gourav Rakshit beat Rajesh D’Souza 21-8, 5-21, 21-0, 4-4; Sanjeev Kumar beat 2- Mahesh Chhabra 21-15, 11-21, 21-9, 14-14. Final: Sanjeev Kumar beat 1-Gourav Rakshit 21-19, 21-12, 14-21, 18-16.
Men’s doubles – Semi-finals: Ashutosh Pednekar/Monesh S. beat Prashant Sen/Rajath Rathod 21-9, 18-21, 21-8; Gourav Rakshit/Siddharth Nandal beat Shivang Pratap/Vikram Chaufla 21-17, 21-16, 21-11, 4-6. Finals: Ashutosh Pednekar/Monesh S. beat Gourav Rakshit/Siddharth Nandal 20-22, 21-11, 15-21, 20-17.