Sandeep Verlekar (left) and Sameer Kakodkar shake hands after winning an intense 55+ men’s doubles semifinal match against Rajnish Dhall and Caetano Fernandes.
Panaji
Sameer Kakodkar and Sandeep Verlekar stormed into the finals of the veteran 55+ men’s doubles event at the ongoing Bandodkar Panjim Gymkhana Open 2024, defeating their rivals Rajnish Dhall and Caetano Fernandes.
The match was fiercely contested and spilled into a super tiebreaker, which Sameer and Sandeep finally won (7-6), (1-6) and (10-8).
In another match, Sachin Dukle reached the finals of the veteran’s 45+ men’s singles category, defeating Dmitry Smirnov (7-5) (6-4).
In the ladies singles event, Simran Bundela beat Tashina Singh (6-1) and Aastha overcame a tough challenge from her opponent Atika to defeat her (7-6) (10-8) to reach the semifinals. In another ladies singles match Tithee Bhoomkar made light work of Archana Desai defeating her (6-0).
In the mixed doubles category, Simran Bundela/Bulu beat Vidhi Naik/Pankaj Naik (6-1), Archana Desai/Prajat Halankar beat Tithee Bhoomkar/Devaansh Naik (7-5), Atika/Lyndon Pinto beat Anna VK/Gary Steele (6-1) while Santosh Gorawar/Marisa Colaco beat Julia Shakirova/Sergey Romanov (6-3).
In the men’s doubles event, Jai Gill/Anurag Agrawal beat Gary Steele/Rishabh Beria (6-1), Jai/Anurag Agrawal beat Ganesh Vernekar/Bhalchandra Gaitonde (6-2), while Santosh Gorawar/Raju Kundaikar beat Pankaj Naik/Sachin Ambre (6-0).
In the boys u-18 category, Puneet Fadte defeated Kyan Mavany without losing a single game, while Shay Walke beat Vivaan Agrawal (6-3).
In the Girls u-14 quarter finals, Tvisha Sardesai beat Sofia Sánchez (6-0), while Bhaavya defeated Ahana Kumar (6-2). In the boys u-14 event, Adianta Devaraya beat Aymer Fernandes (6-1), Arhan Gaunkar beat Adarsh Salkar (6-3), Noah Carvalho beat Avanish Pillankar (6-3), Kyan Mavany beat Shaurya Verlekar (6-3), Vedant Naik beat Claron Alphonso (6-0), Ethan de Ataide beat Christian Fernandes (6-1) and Alec Barreto beat Samik Satardekar (6-1).
