MARGAO
Fifteen-year-old Tithee Bhoomkar from Old Goa was the toast of the recently concluded Baale BPS Open 2025, winning treble honours including the ladies singles, ladies doubles and the girls under-18 crowns. Well-known Margao-based tennis coach Nishad Shevde also won the treble in the tournament winning the men’s singles, men’s doubles and mixed doubles titles.
Niklesh Pednekar and Mahesh Pagadala paired up to win the maiden final of the Wheelchair Tennis Challenger event, held on the sidelines of the tournament, which was also held simultaneously at the B.P.S. courts in Margao.
Tithee, a prominent young talent in Goa’s tennis circuit, defeated Raisa Menezes in the semifinals of the women’s singles event defeating her 6-1, 7-5. In the final match of the category, Tithee won the title with a walkover, after her opponent in the final hurdle, Tanya Shelyazhynska-Caldeira, retired hurt and did not participate in the match due to injury. In her semifinal encounter, Tanya defeated her opponent Atika Gaur 6-0, 6-2, with relative ease.
Tithee’s journey to the title in the ladies doubles category was not an easy one, with she and her partner, Vidhi Naik, stretched considerably in the final encounter. After winning the first set 6-3, they lost the second set to Tanya and Raisa 3-6, before being stretched 11-9 in the third to emerge victorious. Tithee had previously won the under-18 girl’s title 4-2, 4-0 defeating Tvisha Sardesai.
In the maiden edition of the Wheelchair Tennis Challenger Tournament held this year as part of the Baale BPS Open 2025, Niklesh Pednekar combined with Mahesh Pagadala to defeat Stany Dsouza and Gauresh Marathe 6-3 to win the final.
In the men’s singles final, well-known Margao-based tennis coach Nishad Shevde trounced Akhil Shirwaikar 6-2, 6-0 to win the title. In the men’s doubles final, Nishad/Anurag defeated Raju/Santosh in a stretched encounter. While Nishad and Anurag Agrawal won the first set 6-4, Raju and Santosh Gorawar staged a stunning comeback, winning the second set 6-2, before they eventually lost 10-7 at the final hurdle. Raju and Santosh had defeated Wes Ryan Cardoso/Sanket Nayak 6-1, 6-4 in the semifinals en route the final encounter. In the mixed doubles final, Junette Rodrigues/Nishad overcame a tough challenge from Anjali Philip/Santosh Gorawar defeating them 7-6 (5), 6-3.
The 55+ men’s singles final saw Caetano Fernandes defeat Jude Cardozo 6-3, 7-6 (2), while in the men’s doubles final in the same category, Jude Cardozo/Noel Noronha had it easy in their match against Caetano/Basavaraj defeating them 6-2, 6-0.
In the finals of the boys u-10 event, Devaansh Naik defeated Arsh Sardesai 4-1, 4-2 to win the title.
