Bagga, Gauri rule the roost at JVPG

Rohan won the singles and doubles in the junior boys section while Anand did likewise in the midget boys section.

Bagga played an unusually consistent game to trounce Mayur Tawade 15-10, 15-3. He then teamed up with Sim Sim Salaria to win the mixed doubles title beating Bhushan Akut and Gauri Narayan 15-11, 15-10.

Gauri played solidly in the women’s final to upset the top seed Nazneen Karimi 11-9, 11-8. In the junior girls final, she trounced Anuj Wadke 11-0, 11-0 to complete a fine treble. She had earlier defeated Riddhi Panjwani 11-0, 11-6 in the sub-juniorfinal.

Bagga looked sharp and in control. Mayur Tawade tried to exploit Bagga’s backhand during the early stages of the contest. But the latter was equal to the task hitting to all corners from his left side.

However, after establishing a 9-2 lead in the first game, Bagga’s judgement failed him on several ocassions as he allowed Tawade to pull up at 9-6. But from 10-7, he turned the game into his favour with some brilliant strokes.He was in no such problem in the second game as he toyed with Tawade and won points either with killer drops or superb half-smashes.

From 3-2, Bagga raced to 6-2 and then won six points on the trot to virtually put the game beyond Tawade’s reach. The latter could only muster another point before succumbing to the brilliance of the two-time National champion.

Gauri excelled in court-coverage with seemingly little effort.

Her unwavering concentration and ability to retrieve almost anything hit in her direction tilted the game heavily in her favour.

In the junior boysfinal, Rohan Radhakrishnan showed the class of a prized boxer in his movements and almost unerringly good judgement while helped him prevail over the hard-working left-hander Rahul Tipnis 15-7, 17-16.

Tipnis, though, had one factor in his favour. He had better stamina and had the line judge not ruled a call against him when he was leading 14-12 in the second game, there could have been a different winner.

Results (all finals)

Prefix denotes seedings

Men’s singles: 1-Rajeev Bagga bt 2-Mayur Tawade 15-10, 15-3.

Doubles: Mayur Tawade/ Milind Ghate bt Rajeev Bagga/ Amogh Kulkarni 15-12, 17-16.

Junior boys singles: 3-Rohan Radhakrishnan bt Rahul Tipnis 15-7, 17-16.

Doubles: 1-Rohan Radhakrishnan/ Amogh Kulkarni bt 2-Rahul Tipnis/ Vinayak Puthran 15-5, 15-4.

Sub-Junior boys singles: 1-Amit Singh bt Sujay Thacker 15-8, 15-3.

Midget boys singles: 1-Anand Pawar bt 2-Sagar Chopda 15-10, 15-4.

Doubles: 1-Anand Pawar/ Sagar Chopda bt RohitSadani/ Abhinav Kapoor 15-6, 15-1.

Mini boys singles: 1-Parin Chopda bt 2-Kush Munim 15-9, 15-10.

Mixed doubles: Rajeev Bagga/ Sim Sim Salaria bt Bhushan Akut/ Gauri Narayan 15-11, 15-10.

Women’s singles: Gauri Narayan bt 1-Nazneen Karimi 11-9, 11-8.

Doubles: Ami Shah/ Padmini Desai bt Sim Sim Salaria/ Nazneen Karimi 4-15, 17-16, 15-9.

Junior girls singles: 1-Gauri Narayan bt 2-Anuj Wadke 11-0, 11-0.

Sub-junior girls singles: 1-Gauri Narayan bt Riddhi Panjwani 11-0, 11-6.

Midget girls singles: Riddhi Panjwani bt Druti Deshpande 11-3, 11-2.

Mini girls singles: Aishwarya Nair bt Ankita Malgaonkar 11-5, 11-5.