Mumbai : Nitin Toshniwal won the men’s open doubles and Manish Rawat won the 40+ crown as the victorious duo led Solapur ‘A’ to the team title, in the Khar Gymkhana Maharashtra State Ranking Veterans Table Tennis Tournament.
Toshniwal teamed up with Rawat to beat Percy Mehta and Sarosh Shroff 11-9, 11-7, 11-9 in the doubles final and later the winning pair prevailed over Jain Sports ‘A’ in a 3-2 thriller in the team championship final.
Toshniwal, who shocked top seed Upendra Muley in the 40+ semi-finals, was the toast of the competition after winning his second singles over Muley and the crucial reverse singles over Sunil Babras that forced the decider, in the team final. Rawat made amends for his opening singles and doubles losses to beat Muley 3-1 in the decider.
Rawat denied Toshniwal a triple following a thrilling 8-11, 11-6, 11-3, 5-11, 11-9 win in the 40+ final to also help himself to a double crown. Among the women, national veterans champion Suhasini Bakre also earned a double, following victories in the 50+ and open doubles.
The other winners include four-time national veterans champion Prakash Kelkar of Bank of India (60+), two-time national winner Sunil Babras (50+) and Pinakin Sampat (65+) who beat Satish Kumar 11-2, 11-5, 3-11, 9-11, 14-12 in the most absorbing championship round.
Results (All finals): Team Championship: Solapur ‘A’ bt Jain Sports ‘A’ 3-2 (Manish Rawat lost to Sunil Babras 2-3; Nitin Toshniwal bt Upendra Muley 3-1; Toshniwal/Rawat lost to Babras/Muley 2-3; Toshniwal bt Babras 3-1; Rawat bt Muley 3-1).
