Corporate TT Champion Suraj Chandrashekhar bagged a double when he won the Men’s Singles 21+ as well as Men’s doubles 21+( partnering Shashank Bisht) titles of the Mumbai Games Table Tennis championship which concluded today at the University Stadium, Marine Lines.
Suraj receiving his Gold medal from Chief Referee Dominic Savio Lobo
The Women’s 21+ section saw the supremacy of Misbha Sumar when she defeated her opponents successively with ease, before overcoming Nikita Vajandaar 3-0 in the finals. The Men’s Singles 40+ Championship Cup finals Percy Mehta had a tough time against his regular practice partner Sarosh Shroff . Down 0-2 , Percy took the next three games by skillfully controlling the hard hitter Sarosh in the five games battle .
In the Men’s Under 21 Singles for Champions Cup Aniruddha Vaidya scored a 3-1 victory over Harshit Katyal to bag the Gold, while in the Girls 8-9 yrs midget group finals , the youngest winner little Riana was lucky to win two games on Golden points against her opponent Anvi Gupte , whom she beat 3-1. Riana is trained by former National Level TT player Rajendra Sawant from Thane. Another little star in the Boys midget 8-9 age group Tanish Pendse proved his dominance after winning the finals 3-0 against Parth Magar.
Percy ( left) with Sarosh ( Right) after their Men’s 40+ finals
The Boys Under 15 Champions cup title was won by Sharman Dedhia, who stopped the winning run of Om Chopade scoring a 3-1 win over him in the finals , while in Girls Under 15 Champions Cup finals Nimisha Warang scored a 3-1 win over Poonam Yadav. In the Girls U-18 Champions Trophy Riya Suryavanshi won the Gold medal. In the Men’s 35+ Champions Cup section, Parvez Lalani beat Zulfekar Lalwala to win the title. Boys Under 18 Champions Cup was won by Jitendra Yadav who beat Suraj Shah in the finals, while Yuvraj yadav won the Boys Under 12 title for Champions Cup.
Riana Bhoota- winner Girls Singles(8-9 age grp)
The Men’s 40+ title was bagged by Veteran Ulhas Shirke and Santosh Jain.They beat Nilesh Prabhu and Suni Pandey 3-0. However, the winners had a tough time scoring a 3-2 victory over Jayant Gunjal & Deepak Vishwakarma in the semi finals. They won the decider on Golden point. There were many closely contested matches noticed in men’s 21+ Singles. Suvrat Athavale stretched Saurabh Mohite to 5 games and later Saurabh Mohite losing 2-3 to Dijanglung Kamson. Sunny Pawar lost to Vivek Bhalerao very narrowly, while Akshay Gangarde losing 2-3 to Chand Patel in the same event. In the men’s Under 21 singles Sanvaish Jadhav was unlucky as he lost very narrowly to Aniruddha Vaidya , who later won the finals.
Ria Suryavanshi
In the Elite Cup team event the 8 teams represented by state /national level players from Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai . There was an action to select the players and the eight team owners had their choice. These matches were played on a Knock out basis amid cheering from their respective zone players, thus generating a good competition. Zubin Taraporewala ,Yugandh Zende and Tanmay Rane received Gold, Silver and Bronze respectively on behalf of their teams. The overall tournament was well organized with good technical support . All the match results were instantly uploaded on their website www.mumbaigames.in . The results in detail and late results can be seen on this website.
Sharman Dedhia
In fact the organizers have shown the way , how a professional TT tournament be conducted. Thanks to Mumbai Games Governing Council members Pullela Gopichand, Viren Rasquinha & Anjali Bhagwat and their team for their proper planning and superb execution.
Good thing about this tournament was that there were league matches played ( best of three games) in all events, with division of players in different groups. The topper from each group fought for the Champions Cup at the next stage , which was played on Knock out basis( Best of 5 games, with Golden point) . The second best player in the group also got a chance to play Knock out for the premier Cup, thus generating a fair competition.