BHUBANESWAR 11-Jan-2015 87
Experience prevailed over youth as Santosh Mallik, a leading coach, beat his younger opponent Adarsh Sahoo in the hard-fought final to win the men’s singles title in the 2nd All-Odisha Utkal Open Tennis Tournament here at Kalinga Stadium today.
Mallik, who at the age of 33 still competes in AITA men’s circuit, bagged a creditable double in the three-day state-level tournament by emerging champion in men’s doubles as well. But it was not easy for Mallick as he and his partner Vivek Tibarewal came from behind to win the doubles final in super tie-break against Lalit Dash and Sunil Pallei. For Tibarewal, who is also the secretary of All Odisha Chess Association, this was his maiden title in recent years.
Organised by city-based Ace Tennis Club, the tournament featured competition in six categories. In-form Rutuparna Choudhury, seeded second, won the women’s singles title, edging out third seed K Bhargavi in the final, also in super tie-break.
The title in under-14 boys’ singles was claimed by third Kabir Hans, who proved the seedings wrong by outclassing top seed Amrutjay Mohanty in the summit clash. This was the maiden singles crown and that too a significant one for Hans as it was recognised as an AITA Championship Series event. Saswat Jena and Dayal Gangwar pocketed the 40-plus veteran doubles title, while that of the 50-plus veteran doubles was captured by B N Mohanty and Rabindra Senapati.
Title winners in each cagetory received cash prize of Rs 8,000 each, while the losing finalists were give Rs 4,000 each. Police DG Sanjib Marik handed over the trophies and cash prizes at the closing ceremony. Ace Tennis Club organising chairman Dr Biswajit Mishra, president Prakash Chand Bhura, secretary Navratan Bothra and tournament referee Jatin Baitsya were present on the occasion.
RESULTS:
U-14 boys’ singles: Pre-quarterfinals: Amrutjay Mohanty bt Ashish Ku Parida 4-1, 4-2; Abhishek Mohapatra bt Samarjit Sethy 4-0, 4-1; Pratyush Mohanty bt Sk Farhan Kabir 4-0, 4-0; Rahul Behera bt Debraj Mohapatra 4-0, 4-1; Aryan Bal bt Satyajit Panda 4-1, 5-4(9); Kabir Hans bt Bisweswar Satpathy 4-0, 4-1; D Aryan Swamy bt Anmol Dash 4-1, 4-0; Kumar Sahil bt Bighnesh Nanda 4-2, 4-0. Quarterfinals: A Mohanty bt A Mohapatra 4-1, 4-0; R Behera bt P Mohanty 3-5, 4-0,(7-5); K Hans bt Aryan Bal 4-1, 4-0; K Sahil bt D A Swamy 4-2, 4-1. Semifinals: A Mohanty bt R Behera 6-2, 6-2; K Hans bt K Sahil 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. Final: K Hans bt A Mohanty 6-2, 6-4.
Women’s singles: Pre-quarterfinals: Ameek Kiran Batthbt S Harshada 7-0; K Bhargavi bt Aashra Patel 7-0; Koyal Mishra bt Dhriti Bhattacharjee 7-1; D Gottikonda bt Girisha Arora 7-3; Anaam Almas bt Subhashree Jena 7-0; Komal Vishakha bt Lusna Sharma 7-0; Rutuparna Choudhury bt Sai Pragyan Padhi 7-1. Quarterfinals: AK Batthbt SS Prusty 8-0; K Bhargavi bt Koyal Mishra 8-5; D Gottikonda bt A Almas 8-6; R Choudhury bt K Vishakha 8-1. Semifinals: K Bhargavi bt AK Batth 9-3; R Choudhury bt D Gottikonda 9-7. Final: R Choudhury bt K Bhargavi 7-6(2), 4-6, 10-7.
Men’s singles: Pre-quarterfinals: Santosh Mallik bt Pitabas Panda 8-2; Sunil Palai bt Arun Ku Nayak 8-4; Asutosh Das bt Dibakar Gouda 8-3; Ankit Nayak bt Noble Kothari 8-1; Manoj Nayak bt Lalatendu Barma 8-7(3); Adarsh Sahoo bt Kumar Anurag Saran 8-4; Anand Senapati bt Sandeep Routray 8-3; Ajay Nishank bt Aditya Satpathy 8-2. Quarterfinals: S Mallik bt S Palai 9-3; A Das bt A Nayak 9-1; A Sahoo bt M Nayak 9-3; A Nishank bt A Senapati 9-0. Semifinals: S Mallik bt A Das 6-4, 6-3; A Sahoo bt A Nishank 6-4, 6-4. Final: S Mallik bt A Sahoo 6-0, 4-6, 10-4.
Men’s doubles: Semifinals: Lalit Das- Sunil Palai bt Sibasish Samant- Kumar Anurag Saran 9-1; Vivek Tibrewal- Santosh Mallik bt Adarsh Sahoo-Farhan Ali 9-8(5). Final: S Mallik-V Tibarewal bt L Dash-S Pallei 5-7, 7-6(5), 10-8.
Veteran 40+ double: Final: Saswat Jena-Dayal Gangwar bt Paresh Singh-Biswajit Mishra 9-6.
Veteran 50+ doubles: Final: B N Mohanty-Rabindra Senapati bt Suresh Mohapatra-R Viswanath 9-4.
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PHOTO: Utkal Open title winners (L to R) Kabir Hans, Rutuparna Choudhury, Vivek Tibarewal and Santosh Mallik in Bhubaneswar on January 11, 2015.
