Panaji
Forty-year-old Rishabh Beria defeated Amulya Sethi (6-1), even as Lyndon Pinto trounced Kushal Mamoowala with the same score, in the men’s singles category to proceed to the next round of the ongoing debut edition of the Bandodkar Panjim Gymkhana Open 2024.
In other men’s singles matches, Bhalchandra Gaitonde easily vanquished Suraj Patlekar (6-0) without losing a game. Anurag Agrawal beat Kuldeep Bhagat (6-3), Gary Steele defeated Gareth Cardoso (6-4), Prthvir Solanki beat Sachin Ambre (6-2), Sandesh Satardekar defeated Ojas (6-2), Ganesh Vernekar beat Kishor Metry (6-3), Sanjay Varak beat Laxman A (6-3), Raviraj beat Awnish Singh (6-2), Caetano Fernandes beat Saurabh Khanna (6-3), Pankaj Nanoskar beat Venctexa Burye (6-2) and Allan Fernandes beat Anup Sardesai (6-2).
In the veterans category, Sandeep Verlekar/Suresh Kadam faced a tough challenge from the Robert D’Souza/Surjit Lamba duo, eventually defeating the latter (7-6) even as Mervin Soares/Valentin Fernandes beat Kedar Palekar/Niraj Prabhu (7-5) in a closely fought encounter to progress to the next stage of the tournament in the 45+ men’s doubles event. In the same event, Sunil Signapurkar/Wayne Fernandes beat Wilfred Mascarenhas/Vinod Chandra (6-4) and Ishan Bakhale/Sadguru Dessai beat Kishor Metry/ Savio Vales(6-4).
In other matches that were held, Vidhi Naik beat Anika Kumar (6-2), while Avni Lotlikar beat Naimah Sharma (6-1), Neeraja Damle defeated Nethra Soni (6-1), while Tithee Bhoomkar trounced Ahana Kumar (6-0) without losing a single game to proceed to the tournament’s next round in the girls U-18 event in the open category.
