Rachith Aiyappa today prevailed over Santosh Gorawar to win the men’s finals of the Cidade de Goa Open Tennis Tournament 2015 in a riveting match held at the tennis courts at Cidade de Goa. Rachith Aiyappa beat Santosh Gorawar in straight sets (6-2,6-3)to lift the coveted trophy
With the recently concluded Clube Tennis De Gasper Dias Open 2016 it has been a flood of tennis activities in the state. The Cidade de Goa Open Tennis Tournament 2016 organised in association with the Goa State Tennis Association (GSTA) and Cidade de Goa was held over the last two weeks as tennis enthusiasts battled it out on court while the Goan tennis fraternity cheered them on. This year’s tournament saw over 90 entries from participants across age groups.
The tournament included ten categories – Under 12 (Girls and Boys), Under 16 (Girls and Boys), Men’s Singles, Ladies Singles, Men’s Doubles, Mix Doubles, Veterans Singles and Veterans Doubles. With Tennis gaining popularity the objective of the Cidade de Goa Open Tennis Tournament 2016 is to promote tennis and continue to offer a platform to budding tennis players across the state. The tournament players were offered the tennis courts and other facilities at Cidade de Goa.
Said Nathan Chowgule, President, Goa State Tennis Association (GSTA) , “I congratulate all the winners of the Cidade de Goa Open Tennis Tournament. In its third edition, the Cidade de Goa Open Tennis Tournament has seen tremendous participation and has brought players together in a competitive yet familiar environment. For a state that has hardly any tennis infrastructure, its overwhelming to see so much talent on the court. The number of players have increased and there are more tournaments that are organised now in the state. This year the standard of play was much higher and we had players coming outside the state of Goa. We truly appreciate the effort the members of the GSTA have put into organizing this tournament and the support from Cidade de Goa in particular. All the players brought in enthusiasm and a great sporting spirit to this tournament. And that’s what sports is all about.”
Rajendra Godinho, Secretary ,Goa State Tennis Association (GSTA) said ,Cidade de Goa Open Tennis Tournament was a tremendous success in it’s third edition Cidade De Goa has come forward to support the association to have summer camp for children and adults and regular tennis couching classes after the monsoons. This will only help in more players coming forward and we thank Cidade De Goa for this.
In the U-12 category (boys), Arnav Oruganty won against Felix Craven (4-1, 4-2), Rutuja Prabhudessai won against Simran Bundela (4-2,4-1) in the U-12 (girls) category. Similarly in the U-16 (boys) Werner Fernandes went up against Arlindo Gomindes(6-0,6-3) to win the top spot with Arlindo taking the runners up place while Ibtisam Shaikh took down Saumya Sukhthankar (1-6,7-6,6-1) in the U-16 (girls) tennis tournament. In the Women’s Singles category Simran Khan won playing against Saumya Sukhthankar (6-0,6-0).
The men’s doubles finals saw Tejas Shevde and Rachith Aiyappa take on the team of Rajendra Godinho and Nathan Chowgule to win the doubles finals(6-2,7-6). The mixed doubles was won Bulu Godinho and Charmaine Godinho won (6-3,6-2) against the team of Santosh Gorawar and Melanie Chowgule. In the Veterans singles category Surresh Kadam beat Manoj Pandey to secure the top spot. While in the Veterans doubles match Kevin Rebello and David Mendonza lifted the trophy defeating Manoj Pandey and Glen D’silva .
The winners and runners up trophies were handed out by the Chief Guest Vineet Soni, Resident Manager ,Cidade de Goa.
In an effort to encourage young players to take up the sports and enjoy it, a special tennis Carnival was organised for children aged below 10 years. Goa’s young tennis enthusiasts had an opportunity to play a fun game of tennis with professionals players, try out their strokes and learn tips and tricks from the senior players.