World Veterans’ Champion Yogesh Desai who brought Gold medal in Men’s 70+ event India at the World Veterans’ TT Championship at Muscat Oman earlier this year, made his presence felt at the All Mumbai 4 Star Table Tennis tournament organised by Khar Gymkhana and Sponsored by DCB Bank and played under the auspices of TSTTA and MCDTTA. Yogesh, who played in Veterrans’ Men 39+ in this tournament, had to qualify from his group for the main draw. In the main draw, he first knocked out seasoned player Harish Shirsat 3-0 from MCD and then went on to defeat sixth seeded Ketan Palwankar 3-0 also from MCD. In both the matches, Yogesh displayed his class blocking the spin attack of his younger opponents very well and attacking at the right moment.
In the Pre Quarter finals, Yogesh faced Rupesh Gharat, another seasoned player and went down fighting 1-3 . Yogesh lost the first game over extra points and managed to take the second game 11-6 to equalise the set score. He put up a good fight in the next two games, but his quick opponent realising his mistakes in the first two games, used variation in services and placements in the 3rd and 4th game to stop his opponent’s winning run.
In another good pre quarter final match, Kiran Salian faced challenge from Gurcharan Singh Gill. Though Kiran won this match 3-1, he lost the third game after leading 2-0 . The second and 4th game won by Kiran were with the scores 14-12 and 11-9. Kiran’s brother Naveen seeded 3rd in this event also had a tough time before overcoming Saurabh Mohite in another Pre quarter final match. Naveen lost the first game but recovered to take 2-1 lead in next two games. He won the fourth game over extra points. Another seeded player Ravi Chopra dropped a game to Parikshit Jain before winning 3-1 against him.
All Finals will be played on Sunday from 4 pm onwards.