Badal Katewa conquers Gaspar Dias Open

Rajasthan’s Badal Katewa made his debut in the Gadre Gaspar Dias Open a memorable one, winning the men’s singles and men’s doubles title, even as Bengaluru’s Trisha Vinod won the ladies singles’ title in the state-ranking tournament.

The 26-year-old Katewa, who has represented India in the under-18 category, won a tough three-set final match against Aman Shetty to win the prestigious title. Katewa was leading the first set 5-4, but lost his composure and went on to lose the first set 5-7. In the second set, he took the game by storm and led 4-1, but dropped two sets, before winning it 6-4. He won the final set 10-8.

Shetty had defeated Rahul Singh 6-4, 7-5 to reach the men’s singles final, before failing at the last hurdle. Badal Katewa paired with Rahul Singh to defeat Santosh Gorawar/Raju (3-6) (6-0) (10-0) in the men’s doubles final match.

In the semifinals, Santosh Gorawar/Rajaram Kundaikar had defeated Bulu/ Mano Chhabra 6-2, 3-6; 10-8, while Rahul Singh and Badal Katewa beat Ashwin Narsinghani/Shantanu Gurav in straight sets 7-5, 7-5 to reach the summit clash in the category.

In the ladies singles final, Bengaluru’s Trisha Vinod beat Sanika Kambli over three sets.

Trisha, who is currently in the top ten women tennis players in India, won the first set through a tiebreaker 7-6, before losing the next set cheaply 1-6. In the final set, however, Trisha defeated her rival (10-8) to win the ladies singles title. She had defeated Manvela 6-2, 6-0 in the semis to reach the final. Harsha Deshpande and Ethan de Ataide won the girls under-12 and boys under-12 finals, defeating Gargi Oak 4-0, 4-1 and Shaurya Verlekar 4-0, 10-6 respectively.

Rising star Atharv Dakare had an easy win over Arhan Gaunkar defeating the latter 4-0, 4-0 without losing a single game to win the boys under-16 final match.