Saswat Jena and Himadri Kanungo captured the 40-plus veteran doubles title, while the 50-plus veteran doubles title was pocketed by R Viswanath and Biranchi Narayan Mohanty. P K Bakshi-V Raman emerged champions in 60-plus veteran double category.

Organised by Bhubaneswar District Tennis Association (BDTA), the three-day tournament, carrying a total prize fund of Rs 1.70 lakh, was participated by more than 450 players from different places of the state. Nalco CMD Tapan Kumar Chand and Director (Production) V Balasubranyam gave away the prizes in the presence of BDTA president Suresh Chandra Mohapatra and secretary Saroj Sahu.

But the premier state level tournament continued to be embroiled in controversy due to certain decisions by BDTA that defied logic. First of all, professional tennis coaches were denied entry in men’s open singles for the second year, thus making the Nalco Open as Nalco Close Tournament.

BDTA office-bearers took this arbitrary decision with the plea that the professional coaches were taking away all the prize money, which should have gone to young players. But it is a fact that these professional coaches are still active players and compete in state and all-India tournaments at different places of the country without any restriction.

If they are winning most of the prizes in men’s singles, it should be a credit, not discredit for them. If the young players, who play more tournaments than the coaches, are unable to win prizes in Nalco Open then they need to blame themselves for improving their standard.

According to knowledgeable tennis followers of the state, BDTA office-bearers, headed by senior bureaucrat Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, have been keeping coaches out of Nalco Open with the intention to punish them for questioning BDTA’s forcible occupation of four clay courts in the State Government-owned Kalinga Stadium tennis complex and depriving competitive players from using these courts.

It is really baffling that the State Government is allowing the BDTA office-bearers to use the clay courts as their personal fiefdom, while turning a blind eye to the problems of the competitive players and coaches. The government has appointed around 100 coaches to groom talents in different games, but none in tennis. On the other hand, instead of encouraging freelance tennis coaches by providing help and support, it is taking payments from them to impart coaching in the seven synthetic courts.

It is equally baffling that even NALCO, a public sector enterprise of Government of India, has been providing sponsorship to BDTA to organise a tournament that discriminates against coaches-cum-competitive players. Ironically, former India Test cricketers Debasis Mohanty and Shiv Sundar Das, who accompanied their Nalco bosses to the prize distribution function, were not even offered a seat by BDTA.

It is alleged that BDTA is using the sponsorship money more for the benefit of its own members rather than players. Despite receiving huge amounts through sponsorship, BDTA increased entry fees more than five times this year. But the prize money remained the same.

RESULTS:
U-12 BOYS’ SINGLES: Quarterfinals: Yashraj Nayak bt Debabrata Pradhan 5-4(2); Omm Das bt Vidish Agarwal 6-0; Anmol Dash bt Sambit Sitta Siri Sai Pradhan 6-3; Rabi Narayan Sahoo bt Bisweswar Satpathy 5-1. Semifianls: Y Nayak bt O Das 7-2; RN Sahoo bt A Dash 7-4. Final: Y Nayak bt RN Sahoo 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, 6-1.

U-16 BOYS’ SINGLES: Quarterfinals: Pratyush Mohanty bt Ashish Kumar Parida 5-3; Aasish Kumar Sinha bt Jyotiraditya Mishra 5-0; Amrutjay Mohanty bt Abhishek Mohapatra 6-5(4); J Panmei bt Satyajit Panda 6-5. Semifinals: AK Sinha bt P Mohanty 7-2; A Mohanty bt J Panmei 7-5. Final: A K Sinha bt A Mohanty 6-2, 6-2.

WOMEN’S SINGLES: Quarterfinals: Anaam Almas bt Ashra Patel 6-1; Komal Vishakha bt Ayesha Swain 6-1; Ameek Kiran Batth bt Simran Neha Ekka 6-1; Rutuparna Choudhury bt Debanjali Kumar 6-0. Semifinals: A Almas bt K Vishakha 8-2; R Choudhury bt AK Batth 8-2. Final: R Choudhury bt A Almas 6-1, 6-1.

MEN’S SINGLES: Quarterfinals: Ansu Kumar Bhuyan bt Kabir Hans 6-4; A Sahoo bt Kumar Anurag Saran 6-3; Aditya Satpathy bt Debasis Pattanayak 6-1; Satirtha Patnaik bt Prasanta Kumar Patra 6-1. Semifinals: AK Bhuyan bt A Sahoo 9-5; S Patnaik bt A Satpathy 9-6. Final: AK Bhuyan bt S Patnaik 6-4, 6-0

MEN’S DOUBLES: Quarterfinals: Vivek Mahanandia-Pratyush Mohanty bt Justin Panmei-Swostik Satyakam Pradhan 6-4; Surjiban Behera-Arun Kumar Nayak bt Vikram Agarwal-Ashis Sahu 6-2; Kabir Hans-Aditya Satpathy bt Gaurav Aggrawal-Mayank Dubey 6-1. Final: Ansu Kumar Bhuyan-Satirtha Patnaik bt Asutosh Das-Abhilash Chandra Sahoo 7-6 (7-3), 6-4.

40+ VETERAN DOUBLES (Final): Saswat Jena-Himadri Kanungo bt Jhadeswar Das-Pravanjan Mullick 9-5.
50+ VETERAN DOUBLES (Final): R Viswanath-Biranchi Narayan Mohanty bt Suresh Chandra Mohapatra-Saroj Sahu 9-7.
50+ VETERAN DOUBLES (Final): P K Bakshi-V Raman bt Arjun Dasagarwal-P K Patnaik 8-7 (9-7).
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TOP: Title winners (L to R) Ansu Bhuyan, Rutuparna Choudhury and Satirtha Patnaik at the Nalco Open in Bhubaneswar on Dec 11, 216.
RIGHT: Boys’ singles champions Yashraj Nayak (Left) and Aasish Kumar Sinha with their trophies in Bhubaneswar on Dec 11, 216.