The boys won the championship in a team event at Baroda.
For the first time, teenagers from Indore won the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) Tennis National championship trophy in a team event.
The team of Yash Yadav, Suryansh Yadav and Akash Nandwal won the trophy at a tournament held in Baroda between December 20 and 24.
Sixteen teams from India and Gulf nations participated in the five-day event, where boys made their mark in the team event and Yash finished runner-up in an individual bout.
“This is for the first time that boys’ team from Indore has won the CBSE nationals’ trophy,” said team coach I K Mahajan.
“We had to play seven games on the penultimate day. It was exhausting, otherwise Yash would have won the individual gold too,” said a team member Suryansh.
“Only best in the team is chosen to play individuals. Yash was our best bet,” said Mahajan who himself had participated in CBSE’s South-West Zone tournament back in 2001, but could not make it to the nationals. The boys are students of Advanced academy.
In first round, Akash and Yash made a clean sweep by defeating their opponents 7-0. “It was an easy win,” said Yash. The first round was against students of Our Own School, Dubai.
In the second round, they played against Bal Bharti School, Noida, and it too was a cakewalk for both. Yash beat Sidharth by 7-1 and Akash won against Piyush by 7-0.
However, in the quarter finals played against Little Angles Sonepat, 14 year-old Akash lost against Anuj Malik (3-7).
However, Yash won the match against Ishaque Iqbal in a tie-breaker 7-6 (7-5). The decision was then posted on doubles.
Yash and Suryansh played against Iqbal and Anuj and knocked them out by 7-3 making their way into semifinals which too was decided in doubles.
The team went on to play final against DAV International, Amritsar on last day of the tournament. It was also decided in doubles. Yash and Suryansh defeated Abhinav and Piyush (4-6), (6-1), (11-9) to lift the trophy.
On day four, Yash started playing individuals too and made to final. “Semis were the toughest of all in the tournament. I was completely exhausted. Each game was played for more than an hour and I played seven games on day four,” said Yash, a class X student.
In individual final, Yash lost to Iqbal of little Angles whom he had defeated in team event in quarter finals. “It was because of mental exhaustion. Had there been a gap of a day, I would have lifted the individual trophy too,” says Yash confidently.
“The two years of rigorous training finally bore sweet results,” said Mahajan. Ironically, no girl team from Indore went to play at the tournament.
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