Goemkarponn desk
Panaji: One hundred and forty tennis players across various age categories will clash at the ongoing TNS PG Tennis tournament, which got underway at the Panjim Gymkhana on Monday.
The state-ranking tournament, which was inaugurated on Monday, is being held in collaboration with the Goa State Tennis Association and Panjim Gymkhana and matches spread across all the 11 categories will be held at the Gymkhana’s courts and the Tennis facility at Clube Tennis de Gaspar Dias in the state capital.
According to the organisers, the tournament is an ideal platform for Tennis players to showcase their talent and make a name for themselves in the Goan Tennis universe.
“We are thrilled to be associated with this prestigious event and support Tennis in Goa. We believe that sports play an important role in the development of individuals and communities, and we are committed to promoting a healthy and active lifestyle. We look forward to a successful tournament and wish all the participants the very best,” Nikunj Gupta, Owner of TNS Jewellers, said.
The various competing categories in the TNS PG Open Tennis tournament are boys under-14, girls under-14, boys under-18, girls under-18, mixed doubles, men’s doubles, ladies singles, men’s singles, veterans 45 years plus, veterans 45 years plus doubles and veterans doubles 55 years plus. In all, 140 players have registered to participate in the tournament. The men’s singles event received the highest number of entries at 42, followed by the mixed doubles category, where 27 entries were received.
The tournament, which is co-organised by the Goa State Tennis Association, is critical for professional tennis players keen on enhancing their state rank.
In the series of matches which were held on an inaugural day in the veteran 45+ years singles category, Manoj Pandey beat Kedar Tari (6-0), Dimitry Smirnov beat Laxman Iyer (6-3), Rajnish Dhall beat Rajesh Bundela (6-2), Kishor Metry beat Bhaskar Suryanarayan (6-1), Sameer Kakodkar beat Mackinlay Barretto (6-0), Anupam Saksena beat Nitesh Nerulkar (6-1) while Prasad Fadte beat Michael Viegas (6-1).
