Bhattacharya, Chotrani in final

Rathore, seeded second, took the early initiative and at one point, was ahead 5-2. But Chotrani fought his way back and soon had scores levelled at 5-all. From thereon, Chotrani started making a headway even as his Indore opponent struggled.

“It was too hot inside,” said a tired Rathore after the match. “I guess an air-conditioner would have made a difference. Also the ball was bouncing too high which added to my troubles,” he complained. Chotrani, however, faced little problems as he swept Rathore aside — 9-5, 9-3, 9-6.

Brar looked particularly off-colour against the top seed Bhattacharya whomade the final with a 9-2, 9-3, 9-5 win.

Mihir Sheth justified his top billing as he beat second seed Siddharth Suchde for the boys’ under-14 title. It was Sheth’s second win over Suchde with his only other victory coming in the Nationals this year. Sheth took the first of the best of five encounter, 9-6, to give Suchde a glimpse of what was in store. Not one to be bogged down, Suchde rallied to take the next game 9-4. But it was just not his day today as Sheth came out with his best and romped home, winning the next two games 9-1, 9-2.

Deepali Anvekar (girls’ under-19) and Gautam Kalani (boys’ under-12) were among the other title winners today.

Results

Men’s Open (semis): 1-Ritwik Bhattacharya (Del) bt 5-Rajdeep Brar (Ser) 9-2, 9-3, 9-5; 3-Manish Chotrani (Mum) bt 2-Gajendra Singh Rathore (Indore) 9-5, 9-3, 9-6.

Boys’ under-14 (Final): 1-Mihir Sheth (Mum) bt 2-Siddharth Suchde (Mum) 9-6, 4-9, 9-1, 9-2.

U-12 (final): 1-Gautam Kalani (Mum) bt 2-Nikhil Seth (Mum) 9-6, 9-5, 9-1.Over-35(semis): 1-Vaman Apte bt Gopi Mohite 9-0, 9-3, 2-9, 9-4; 3-Anant More bt Ramesh More 9-3, 9-6, 9-8.