Last weekend from all over Maharashtra all roads led to Pune. The occasion was 1st State ranking Veterans’ Table Tennis Tournament of this new season, held in memory of late Dr.Pramod Mulay at PYC Gymkhana, Pune. After going through heavy schedule of team events, the enthusiastic players in different age group of veterans got ready for their matches by Saturday evening. And for two days we witnessed very good competition in different men’s and women’s individual events. In these individual events, players from Mumbai ( MCD & MSD), Pune, Solapur shared the trophies and Gold medals . While Mumbai bagged 5 titles , Pune sharing 3 leaving one for Solapur in the nine individual events. There were three well contested finals in men’s section . The first was between Rohit Chowdhary of Pune and Manish Rawat of Solapur which Rohit won with a narrow margin of 3-2 to lift the 40+ Trophy.
Rohit Chowdhary
Little before the final stage, Sales Tax Asst. Commissioner Premjit Rananavare from Mumbai showed a lot of improvisation in his game this year, as he knocked out good seasoned players, on his way to quarter finals of 50+ section. Incidentally, Premjit who has jumped to 50+ section this year, had also won consolation prize in the 45+ doubles along with Dr.Nitin Toshniwal at the recently concluded World Veterans’ TT Championship at Las Vegas. In the quarter finals, he lost very narrowly to 2nd seeded Ram Kadam 2-3, in spite of leading initially in the decider. 4th seeded Abhay Mehta , the winner of just concluded Pro TT All Mumbai Open in the Veterans 40+ event also lost very narrowly 2-3 to kedar Moghe of Pune , while Pankaj Rahane from Nashik who was later declared the Player of the Tournament and who had beaten Rohit Chowdhary in team event, lost very narrowly in semi finals to him in well contested 5 games battle.
MoonMoon Ghosh
In the women’s singles 60+ finals, for the first time unbeaten Mangal Saraf faced toughest opposition from Suhasini Bakre who has this year graduated from 50+ to 60+ age group. With better control over the ball, Suhasini beat the top seed and National champion 3-1. All these three winners displayed good control and excellent counter attack in the finals.
Anagha Josji( Centre)and Suhasini Bakre( Ext Right) who won Women’s 50+ and 60+ titles resp. in dicussion with 50+ finalist Trupti Machve.
The Women’s 40+ section saw former international MoonMoon Ghosh from Mumbai not experiencing much resistance from Pune’s Chadrama Ramkumar and so was in the case with Dr. Anagha Joshi ( Mumbai) who easily scored a 3-0 victory over Trupti Machve( Thane) in the Women’s 50+ finals.
Prakash kelkar
(All Photos By: Prasad Naik)
With his stylish backhand strokes veteran Satish Kulkarni was in terrific form yesterday evening. Sixth seeded Satish scored a 3-2 surprise win over top seeded and present National Champion Yogesh Desai in the Men’s 65+ group.
Satish Kulkarni displaying his backhand stroke
And, this was a big win for the former National level player and brother of international TT players Suhas and Nandini Kulkarni. Earlier Satish had toppled 3rd seed Ulhas Shirke 3-1 in quarter finals and then in the semis he beat Balkrishna katdhare of Pune, who had had knocked out his brother and second seeded Suhas Kulkarni in quarter finals.
Subodh Deshpande receiving his prize from Ms.Bodas,.
On his way to the finals, Yogesh Desai dropped a game to Suhas Dandekar in the quarter finals but had comfortable sailing in semis against Dilip Kurtadkar. However, in the finals, he could not stop the attacking and in form Satish from winning the match 3-2. In the individual Men’s and Women’s events players from Mumbai ( MCD & MSD), Pune, Solapur shared the titles . While Mumbai bagged 5 , Pune sharing 3 leaving one for Solapur in the nine individual events. There were three well contested finals in men’s section . The first was between Rohit Chowdhary of Pune and Manish Rawat of Solapurwhich Rohit won with a narrow margin of 3-2 to lift the 40+ Trophy.
Premjit Rananavare who made his presence felt in men’s 50+ section
There were high expectations from the Men’s 50+ Finals played between Dr.Nitin Toshniwal( Solapur) and former international and current veterans national champion Sunil Babras( Pune). But, in the third game at the set score of 1-1 Sunil Babras conceded the match due to injury, declaring Dr. Toshniwal as the winner. In the Men’s 60+ section national Champion evergreen Prakash kelkar opened his account of Gold medal this year, with a 3-0 victory over Pune’s Avinash Joshi , while top seed in the men’s 75+ age group, Pune’s Subodh Deshpande proved his supremacy, bagging the title after beating R.Rao from Mumbai.
Mangal Saraf was felicitated with this trophy for her contribution to the game of TT
Mangal Saraf, who had put up a Grand show at the recently concluded World Veterans’ TT Championship at Las Vegas and who has won several Gold medals in the Women’s Veterans events at the state and national level for the past several years, was felicitated with the Big Trophy for her dedication to the game of table tennis.
Dr.Vidya Mulay, wife of Late Dr. Pramod Mulay was the guest of honour and gave away the prizes along with other dignitaries present on the occasion. The overall tournament was well organised, in spite of the heavily packed schedule on week end.
Results of all Finals:
WOMENS SINGLES 40+
Finals Moonmoon Mukherjee (MSD) Bt Chandrama Ramkumar(Pune) [Seed – 2] 11/6,11/7,11/5
WOMENS SINGLES 50+
Finals Anagha Joshi(MSD) [Seed – 3] Bt Trupti Machwe(Thane) 11/7,11/6,11/4
WOMENS SINGLES 60+
Finals Suhasani Bakre(Pune) Bt Mangala Saraf(MSD) [Seed – 1] 11/4,3/11,11/6,11/7
MENS SINGLES 40+
Finals Rohit Chaudhary(Pune) [Seed – 7] Bt Manish Rawat(Solapur) [Seed – 1] 11/2,11/7,9/11,9/11,11/4
MENS SINGLES 50+
Finals Nitin Toshniwal(Solapur) Bt Sunil Babras(Pune) [Seed – 1] 12/14,11/5
MENS SINGLES 60+
Finals Prakash Kelkar(MCD) [Seed – 1] Bt Avinash Joshi(Pune) [Seed – 3] 11/5,11/9,11/7
MENS SINGLES 65+
Finals Satish Kulkarni(MSD) [Seed – 6] Bt Yogesh Desai(MSD) [Seed – 1] 13/11,5/11,11/4,6/11,11/6
MENS SINGLES 70+
Finals Pinakin Sampat(MSD) Bt Vikas Satarkar(Pune) [Seed – 1] 11/8,12/14,11/3,11/9
MENS SINGLES 75+
Finals Subodh Deshpande(Pune) [Seed – 1] Bt R Rao(MCD) [Seed – 2] 11/6,11/6,11/6