Greater Noida, January 25: Rajasthan's Aditya Ruhela will face Maharashtra's Harsh Mehta in a classic encounter in the finals of the Pro Open Men's singles category of the 4th IPA Pickleball Nationals, which is being played at Bennett University in Greater Noida.
The match between the top and the ninth seed promises to be a thrilling one with both men looking at the top of their game on Friday.
Ruhela, who had come into the semis with an 11-3 win over fifth-seed Ravi Ranjan, faced fourth-seed Ritesh Jaiswal in the race to the top two and didn't give his opponent any space, beating him 15-0.
Mehta, on the other hand, stunned second-seeded Anahat Mudgil 11-6 in the quarters and then went on to beat 18th-seeded Nishaan Singh 15-2 to set up a title clash with Ruhela. Jaiswal then beat Nishaan in a close 15-14 encounter to finish third in the category.
In the Pro Open women's singles, third-seeded Rakshikha Ravi put up a dominating performance against fourth-seed Himaanshika Singh, and went on to beat her 15-6 to book a berth in the finals. In the other semifinal, fifth seed Amrita Mukherjee beat sixth-seeded Punji Rawal by the same margin to ensure a summit showdown against Ravi.
Rawal then beat Himaanshika 15-10 to finish third in the category.
Earlier in the day, Gujarat's picklers continued their flourish, as they bagged all the boys' doubles titles comfortably. The youngsters kept their state's juggernaut rolling from Day 1 of the tournament as U14, U16, and U18 boys won the accolades.
Purvansh Patel and Dev Shah began the proceedings with a thrilling victory over Vansh Ruhela and Harsh Rawat, beating them 11-5, 8-11, 11-5. They carried a lot of confidence into the summit showdown, having won 15-0 in the semifinals against Mahir Mustafa and Muhammed Saneen.
Ruhela and Rawat too put up a commanding performance in the semifinals, beating Kaustuv Paliwal and Vihaan Goswami 15-4, and did manage to challenge Purvansh and Dev in the finals, but the Gujarat duo brushed the challenge off in the decider.
The baton then passed to the top seeds in the U16 category, Vivan Patel and Jeet Sood, who were challenged by the third-seeded Nishad brothers, Vishal and Jitesh. The first game was very close, with both teams exchanging points. Vivan and Jeet won it by a bare margin of 11-9.
The second game was one-way traffic as the Gujarat youngsters bagged it 11-4 and won the title.
U14 top seeds Veer Shah and Atharva Sheth finished things off in style with a strong victory over Kabir Kamra and Yanniv to complete the proceedings. The Gujarat teens thrashed Kamra and Yanniv 11-1, 11-4 to bag the U14 boys' doubles title, which saw an end to the junior age group category competitions at the 4th IPA Pickleball Nationals.
