Panaji
Fourteen-year-old tennis prodigy Tithee Bhoomkar defeated Anjali Phillip (6-2) in the ladies singles category to proceed to the next round of the ongoing debut edition of the Bandodkar Panjim Gymkhana Open 2024.
Bhoomkar, a student of Sharada Mandir School in Miramar, who represented Goa in the recent National Games, made easy work of her opponent, as did Tashina Singh, Vidhi Naik and Aastha, who defeated their rivals Sania Lotliker, Julia Shakirova and Avni Lotlikar, respectively, without losing a game. In other games in the ladies singles category, Anna VK beat Marisa Colaco (6-1), Atika defeated Hazel Fernandes (6-1) and Archana Desai beat Smita Soni (6-4).
In the open men’s singles category, Pankaj Naik and Lyndon Pinto were engaged in a head-to-head battle, winning six games each, before the former pipped the latter 11-9 in the ensuing tiebreaker. In other games in the same category, Prince De Silva trounced Malvino Pereira without losing a game, while Cherian, Siddharth N, Raviraj, Caetano Fernandes and Shay Walke defeated their rivals Kedar T, Bhalchandra Gaitonde, Sanjay Varak, Dunstan Dais and Gary Steele respectively, losing just one game in the process.
Sreenath Sreenivasan also beat Anant (6-3), Prajat Halankar beat Jai Gill (6-4), ,Pankaj Naik beat Allan Fernandes (6-4), Santosh Gorawar beat Prthvir Solanki (6-2), Ganesh beat Prithvi Naik (6-3).
In a tough match in the girls’ u-14 category, Urvi Panandikar stretched her opponent Sofia Sánchez 7-2 in a tiebreaker, after they both won six games each, even as Tvisha Sardesai beat Saanj Kunde (6-1) and Ahana Kumar beat Naimah Sharma (6-0).
The boys u-14 event also witnessed closely contested encounters like the match between Christian Fernandes and Tarshish Zolmi. Both players won six games each, before Fernandes managed to outlast Zolmi 7-4 in a tiebreaker. Samik Satardekar was also tested by Ivan game by game, before Satardekar managed to clinch a 7-5 victory. In other matches in the same category, Shaurya Verlekar and Vedant Naik defeated Isaac Carvalho and Kaivalya Devaraya, respectively, without losing a game, while Aymer Fernandes beat Arsh Sardesai (6-4), Noah Carvalho beat Devaansh Naik (6-2) Vivaan Agrawal beat Vidaal De Menezes (6-1), Adarsh Salkar beat Aarav (6-1) and Alec Barreto beat Vihaan Agrawal (6-2).
In the men’s doubles event, Sreenath Sreenivasan/Laxman Alway beat Saurabh Khanna/Raviraj (6-1), Krishna Volvoikar/Darsh Pai beat Samir Toraskar/Kedar T (6-4), Gary Steele/Rishabh Beria beat Sunil Signapurkar/Wayne (6-4), while the match between Sachin Ambre/Pankaj Naik and Prthvir Solanki/Pankaj Nanoskar turned out to be a thriller, lasting 22 games, with the former pair eventually winning the match (12-10).
