PANAJI
Caetano Fernandes took rapid strides in the ongoing Baale BPS Open 2024 at Margao, reaching the semifinals of the 45+ and 55+ singles men’s event, while also advancing to the finals of the 55+ men’s doubles event in the tournament’s veterans category.
Caetano reached the 55+ men’s singles semifinals defeating Raju Paiginkar (6-1) and paired with Jude Cardozo to defeat Jose Lourenco and Basavaraj (6-0) in the 55+ men’s doubles event.
In other matches held on Day 2 of the state ranking tournament being held at the BPS Sports Club courts, Kane Pereira, Joshua Cardozo and Pankaj Naik won their matches in the men’s singles event against Aarav Kumar, Saurabh Trivedi and Anup Sardesai, respectively, without losing a single game.
In other matches in the same event, Avadhut Palekar beat Ehrlick De Ataide (7-5), Sachin Ambre beat Amulya Sethi (6-4), Akhil Shirwaikar beat Rehaan Diaz (6-4), Dunstan Dias beat Rajaram (6-2), Apoorv Bamba beat Joshua Cardozo (6-4), Siddharth Chaudhary beat Gaurang Nerurkar (6-3), Raoul Vas beat Sujit Sahoo (7-5), Punit Fadte beat Jason Pereira (6-1) and Jai Gill beat Kishor Metry (6-2).
In the 45+ men’s doubles, Vikrant Karandikar/Vishal Gaurav beat Kishor Metry/Savio Vales (6-3) and moved into the semifinals, so did Ashwin Chandiok/Mano Chhabra who beat Valinton Fernandes/Jose Lourenco (6-0) to enter the semifinals. While Chandiok and Chhabra will meet Karandikar/Vishal Gaurav, Sameer Kakodkar and Laxman Iyer will face Suresh and Sandeep Verlekar in the semifinals. In other matches in the same event, Ashok Borkar/Sagar Utagi beat Bhaskar Suryanarayan/Ninaad (6-3), Suresh/Sandeep Verlekar beat Vinod Chandra/Wilfred Mascarenhas (6-1), Sameer Kakodkar/Laxman Iyer beat Ashok Borkar/Sagar Utagi (6-4).
In the 45+ men’s singles event, Ashwin Chandiok beat Venctexa Burye (6-0) to enter the semis of the event, where he will face Caetano Fernandes in the semifinals.
Jude Cardozo beat Savio Vales (7-5), Suresh beat Basavaraj (6-4), Sameer Kakodkar beat Jose Lourenco (6-1) and Manoj beat Suresh (6-0) to advance in the men’s 55+ singles event, while Sameer Kakodkar/Sandeep Verlekar beat Raju Paiginkar/Aman Gaonkar(6-2) (6-2) in a 55+ men’s doubles match.
