Bombay Scottish's Mandavkar seals maiden U-16 title after final opponent withdraws from inter-school tennis event
Harshali Mandavkar at the CCI courts yesterday. Pic/Suresh Karkera
Harshali Mandavkar, 15, of Bombay Scottish (Mahim) sealed her maiden girls' U-16 crown in the MSSA inter-school tennis tournament at the Cricket Club of India courts on Monday. Harshali's opponent in Tuesday's summit clash, Kashish Bote of Don Bosco International (Matunga), has informed the organisers that she will not be present for the final as she will be leaving on Monday night for Karnal, Haryana to participate in the School Games Federation of India (SGFI) tennis tournament. Harshali has been making it to the finals of the MSSA tennis competition for the last six years. She finished runner-up to Bhumika Tripathi in the U-16 final last year, has won the U-14 title twice and the U-12 title once.
The Bombay Scottish student was mighty pleased to win the senior title in her final year at school. "Winning this title was always something that I wanted to do. I am overwhelmed to finish my school career with this title. But, I did not want to win it this way, so I'm a bit disappointed. I would have loved to play against Kashish as we enjoy a great rivalry and have beaten each other a couple of times in the past though I don't remember the exact head-to-head statistics. Anyway, this is a perfect way to finish my school," an excited Harshali told mid-day.
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Harshali at mid-day's Ranis of Rink U-16 football event on Saturday
Keen football player too
Interestingly, Harshali is a keen football player too and was a key member of her school's bronze medal-winning team at Saturday's mid-day Ranis of Rink girls' U-16 rink football tournament at the Arena 31 Turf, near the Neville D'Souza Ground in Bandra. "It was a great experience playing in the Ranis of Rink football tournament. There are not too many sports activities for us girls. Other than the MSSA and the DSO [District Sports Office] tournaments, we hardly get a chance to play any football. It was a great experience to play five-a-side rink football tournament for the first time. It was a wonderful initiative by mid-day," she added. In the semi-finals of the MSSA tennis tournament, Harshali beat Salonee Dey of Bombay Scottish (Powai) 6-2, while Kashish defeated Suhani Sabrawal of Ecole Mondiale (Juhu) 6-2.
Kimaya, Devashree win
Meanwhile, in the girls U-12 category, Kimaya Apte, another promising footballer, who scored a hat-trick as Cathedral & John Connon (Fort) won the MSSA U-12 football title recently, advanced to the final, beating Rivaa Mehta of Thakur International School 6-4. In the second semi-final, Devashree Mahadeshwar of PTV English School overcame Hrishita Lotlikar of Gundecha School 6-4.
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