Dharamshala: Maharashtra paddlers came up with yet another impressive performance in the UTT Cadet and Sub-Junior National Tennis Championship, winning one gold and two bronze medals in team event here on Saturday. The medal rush for Maharashtra was led by the Sub-Junior Boys’ team that clinched the gold medal after an impressive victory over Tamil Nadu.
Led by young Aadil Anand and Rajveer Shah, Maharashtra edged past Tamil 3-2 to win emerge victorious. Aadil started the proceedings and beat Tharun Shanmugam 3-0, before Raj Preyesh Suresh restored parity for Tamil Nadu with a superb 3-0 win. Aadil the teamed up with Havish Asrani and beat the team of Raj and Tharun to 3-1 to help Maharashtra go 2-1 up.
Aadil, however could not replicate his performance from the first match and lost 0-3 to Raj to allow Tamil Nadu to draw level. With the score tied at 2-2, it was Rajveer who maintained his calm and composure and beat Tharun3-1 to help his side bag the title. Earlier in the tournament, they had beaten West Bengal 3-1 in the semis and edged past Karnataka 3-2 in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, the team of Taneesha Kotecha, Pritha Varthikar and Sampada Bhiwandkar went down 1-3 to Haryana comprising of Suhana Saini and Preksha Vohra in the semifinals to corner the bronze in the Sub-Junior Girls’ category. Elsewhere, in the Cadet Girls’ event, the team of Jennifer Varghese and Devyani Kulkarni also settled for the bronze after they went down fighting 3-2 against the team of Uttar Pradesh which included Anika Gupta and Suhani Mahajan.
