Far from the glamorous sportstars from the city, the carrom players too have been quiet, but are big achievers.
Former U.S. Open carrom champion, R.D. Dinesh Babu, seemed to have rediscovered his winning ways as he clinched the men’s singles title for the fifth time in the South Zone Inter-Audit Championship defeating his AG’s Office teammate Vemuri Anil Kumar (25-6, 16-20, 25-11) in the final.
The highlight of the title-clash was a super slam by Dinesh to script a grand finish after Anil showed his skills too with a slam in the second game.
This win comes on the eve of Dinesh’s visit to Dallas to take part in the U.S. Open championship from August 25 to 28 to defend his title.
For the record, the Indian team for the U.S. Open — R.D. Dinesh Babu, Vemuri Anil Kumar, Basil Philips, G.G. Sandeep Kumar, Tejasvi of Accenture — (all from Hyderabad) would be joined by R. Arokia Raj, B. Radhakrishnan, both from Tamil Nadu.
In a way, the men’s singles final was a repeat of the U.S. open as the two Hyderabadis clashed there in which Dinesh emerged the champion.
“It was exciting to win against such a gifted player like Anil and a huge morale booster ahead of the U.S. Open,” said Dinesh. “I hope there will be another repeat of the last year’s final when we two clashed for the top honours,” he said, with a big smile.
Interestingly, Dinesh also played a key role in Hyderabad winning the team championship defeating Tamil Nadu (3-0) as he first got the better of Mahesh Devraj (25-4, 25-12), then Anil Kumar put it across K. Raja in the second singles and in the doubles, Ravinder Goud combined well with Ganesh Babu to complete a 3-0 sweep.
The impressive outing in the team event also meant a hat-trick for Hyderabad.
The city could have had a more memorable finish but for the loss of Padmaja Bollapragada to Tamil Nadu’s Sharmila (10-25, 14-25) in the women’s singles final.