Vipul Varma caused a flutter when he packed off fancied and fourth seeded Sandeep Bharucha 8-4 to enter the men’s (plus 35) singles quarterfinals on the opening day of the Khar Gymkhana -Maharashtra State Open Seniors Tennis Tournament on their tennis courts today. While top seeded Narendra Singh has been seeded straight into quarterfinals, second seeded Kabir Satyani routed Gautam Badlani 8-1 to make the last eight grade.
There were a couple of interesting ties in the under-45 men’s singles with Ramchandra Khapde scoring over Sandesh Gamre 8-6 and Praveen Jadhav getting the better of Neelkanth Damre 8-5.
The tournament, which carries prize money to the tune of Rs 2.5 lakhs, will have singles plus 35 and plus 45 and as well as doubles in plus 35, 45, 55, 65 and plus 75 categories.
Results:
Men’s (Plus 35) singles (Pre-quarterfinals): Nagesh Kharwe bt Ankush Posture 8-5; Rewanth Datta bt Pranav Karade 8-1; Vipul Varma bt (4)-Sandeep Bharucha 8-4; Krishna Devendra bt Karan Sajnani 8-4; Sandeep Pawar bt Amit Shinde 8-4; (2)-Kabir Satyani bt Gautam Badlani 8-1.
Men’s (Plus 45) singles (Pre-quarterfinals): Vinod Kachawade bt Vijay Desai 8-4; Siddharsth Chatterjee bt (4)-Sudhir Shah 8-4; Mahendra Likhite bt Gautam Badlani 8-2; Pravin Jadhav bt Neelkanth Damre 8-5; Ramchandra Khapde bt Sandesh Gamre 8-6; Karan Singh bt Vijaykumar Ramnathan 8-1.