Ansu Kumar Bhuyan and Kalaga Bhargavi won the men and women open singles titles respectively in the 20th All-Odisha Nalco Open Tennis Tournament, which was organised by Bhubaneswar District Tennis Association (BDTA) at Kalinga Stadium Tennis Complex here from December 23 to 25, 2018.

Bhuyan regained the title after gap of one year as his opponent and defending champion Kabir Hans conceded the final match after losing the first set 4-6 due to injury. For Bhargavi, who is honing her skills at the New Mexico State University in the USA since 2017, it was her maiden singles title in any state level tournament.

This year’s tournament featured competition in nine events, including three for veterans. Debasish Sahu and Abhishek Mohapatra emerged champions in under-12 and under-14 boys singles categories respectively, while the title in girls under-14 event was claimed by Diksha Rout. Before conceding the men’s open singles final, Kabir Hans won the men’s open doubles crown with Anay Nishank as his partner.

Nalco CMD Tapan Kumar Chand gave away the prizes in the presence of BDTA president Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, vice-president Sanjib Marik and secretary Saswat Mishra. The tournament was earlier inaugurated by Vishal Dev, Secretary, Sports & Youth Services Department, Government of Odisha.

Headed by IAS officers, BDTA put its foot in its mouth by allowing coaches compete in the tournament this year, albeit only in doubles event. After arbitrarily debarring coaches for three years, BDTA partially changed its decision as leading players boycotted the tournament last year.

Questions were raised on the autocratic functioning of the BDTA office-bearers, who allegedly used their clout to grab four tennis courts and use these as private property. State Sports Department and title sponsors Nalco also drew flak for supporting the egoistic BDTA office-bearers carry on with their tyrannical rule.

RESULTS (All finals):

Boys U-12 Singles: Debasish Sahu bt Samprit Sharma 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-2. Boys U-16 Singles: Abhishek Mohapatra bt Ashis Kumar Parida 6-1, 6-4. Girls U-14 Singles: Diksha Rout bt Archita Sahoo 6-0, 6-0. Mens Open Singles: Ansu Kumar Bhuyan bt Kabir Hans 6-4 (Retd). Womens Open Singles: Bhargavi Kalaga bt Ameek Kiran Batth 6-0, 0-6, 6-4. Mens Open Doubles: Ajay Nishank-Kabir Hans bt Ansu Kumar Bhuyan-Satirtha Patnaik 7-6(3), 3-6, 10-4. Veteran 40-Plus Doubles: Vivek Tibrewal-Prasant Patra bt Saswat Jena-Himadri Kanungo 6-3, 3-6, 10-6. Veteran 50-Plus Doubles: JH Choi-Saroj Kumar Das Majumder bt B N Mohanty-Ajay Kumar Sahu 8-6. Veteran 60-Pluse Doubles: J Ganta-Pramod Kumar Patnaik bt Gyana Ranjan Das-Jugananda Patnaik 8-4.
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PHOTO: Singles champions Ansu Kumar Bhuyan (Left) and Kalaga Bhargavi after respective final matches at Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar on Dec 25, 2018.