Panaji: Forty-four-year-old Ganesh Pai Vernekar stole the applause during his men’s singles match at the ongoing debut edition of the Bandodkar Panjim Gymkhana Open 2024, clinching a hard-fought victory 7-6 (7-4) against Caetano Fernandes.
The match lasted for nearly an hour, with Ganesh and Caetano fighting for each point in the match, which was eventually decided by a tiebreaker. After the match, Ganesh said that he pumped himself up through the match, reassuring himself that the “game is not over till it is over”.
144 tennis players have signed up to participate in the seven-day state ranking tournament, which is supported by the Goa State Tennis Association, Panjim Gymkhana and the DB Bandodkar & Sons group. The tournament got underway on April 1. All the matches are being held at the Panjim Gymkhana courts.
In other matches in the men’s singles category, Prajat Halankar beat Sreenath Sreenivasan (6-1), Santosh Gorawar beat Shay Walke (6-1), Prince De Silva beat Raviraj (6-1), Mano Chhabra beat Rishabh Beria (6-1), Raju Kundaikar beat Cherian (6-4), Anurag Agrawal beat Pankaj Naik (6-0), Siddharth beat Sandesh Satardekar (6-1) and Mano Chhabra beat Pankaj Nanoskar (6-2).
In the boys u-18 category, Darsh Pai beat Alec Barreto(6-1), Vivaan Agrawal beat Vihaan Krishnan (6-1), Krishna Volvoikar beat Aarav (6-1), Shay Walke beat Avanish Pillankar (6-2), Shreyas Patil beat Shaurya Verlekar (6-0), Kyan Mavany beat Arhan Gaunkar (6-1), while Ethan de Ataide and Vidaal Menezes faced a tough challenge from Devaansh Naik and Adianta Devaraya, eventually defeating the latters (7-5) and 7-6) respectively.
In the mixed doubles event, Atika/Lyndon Pinto beat Astha/Awnish Singh (6-1), Aishwarya/Siddharth beat Sania Lotliker/Joao Mergulhao (6-4), Vidhi Naik/Pankaj Naik beat Tvisha Sardesai/Anup Sardesai (6-2), Meera Kamat/Venctexa Burye beat Smita Soni/Vinod Chandra(6-1), Anna VK/Gary Steele beat Anika Kumar/ Dunstan Dias (6-3), Tithee Bhoomkar/Devaansh Naik beat Anjali Phillip/Sreenath Sreenivasan (6-4), Supriya Sankaran/Jai Gill beat Hazel Fernandes/Wilfred Mascarenhas (6-2) and Julia Shakirova /Sergey Romanov beat Junette Rodrigues /Mervin Soares(6-1).
Contesting in the men’s doubles event, Prince/Kuldeep beat Prithvi Naik/Rehaan Diaz (6-4), Ganesh Vernekar/Bhalchandra Gaitonde beat Lyndon Pinto/Dunstan Dias (6-4) while Ganesh Vernekar and Bhalchandra Gaitonde teamed up again to beat Prajat/Karan (6-2).
Young tennis prodigy Vidhi Naik advanced to the semifinals of the tournament, defeating Tvisha Sardesai (6-3), and so did Avni and Simran Bundela, who defeated their respective opponents Bhaavya and Neeraja (6-2) and (6-0) in the girls u-18 category.
In the veterans 55+ doubles event, Surjit Lamba/Robert D’Souza beat Ishan Bakhale/Dr. Lucio Fernandes (6-2), and Rajnish Dhall/Caetano Fernandes beat David Mendonsa/Manoj Pandey (7-6) (7-2) advancing to the semifinals in the category.
In the veterans 45+ men’s doubles category, Mano Chhabra teamed up with Bulu Godinho to demolish Sunil Signapurkar and Wayn Fernandes without losing a single game. So did Sameer Kakodkar and Laxman Iyer, who defeated Mervin Soares and Valentin Fernandes (6-0).
In the two matches held in the veterans 55+ men’s singles category, Caetano Fernandes beat Jude Cardozo (6-3), while Sameer Kakodkar beat Rajnish Dhall (6-0), while in the 45+ men’s singles, Rajnish beat Laxman Iyer (7-5), Sachin Dukle defeated Sunil Signapurkar (6-0) and Dimitry vanquished Rajesh Bundela (6-0).
