Pickleball Nationals: Aditya, Amrita bag PRO singles titles

Greater Noida: Top-seed Aditya Ruhela defeated ninth-seed Harsh Mehta in straight games to lift the PRO Open men’s singles title while Amrita Mukherjee defeated Rakshikha Ravi to bag the women’s title in the fourth edition of IPA Pickleball Nationals held at the Bennett University on Saturday.

Ruhela (Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating 5.867), who had reached the final after a resounding 15-0 win over fourth-seed Ritesh Jaiswal, faced Mehta (DUPR Rating 4.547) in the title-decider. Mehta had beaten 18th seed Nishaan Singh 15-2 in the semis.

While Mehta, seeded ninth, began with a good point, it was all Ruhela there on as he didn’t give the Maharashtra player any space. He won 11-2, 11-2.

In the women’s PRO Open singles final, Amrita (DUPR Rating 3.801) avenged her group stage loss to Rakshikha (DUPR 4.113), beating her 11-9, 11-3.

Coming into the final, third-seed Rakshikha had defeated fourth-seed Himaanshika Singh 15-6 and fifth-seed Mukherjee had beaten sixth-seed Punji Rawal 15-6. Although the former began as favourite and played a close first game, Amrita trumped her in the second to win the title.

Armaan-Sindoor win mixed doubles

Armaan Bhatia, the face of Indian pickleball, continued his golden run in home tournaments as he and Sindoor Mittal won the mixed doubles title, beating second seeds Shail Shah and Rakshikha Ravi 11-8, 11-6.

Bhatia and Sindoor had reached the final after a 15-2 win against Utkarsh Dubey and Divya Panwar, while Shah and Rakshikha beat Divyanshu Kataria and Asmi Sapra in a close 15-13 encounter.

Second-seed Akhil Mathur (DUPR Rating 4.671) beat Sanjay 11-1, 11-0 in the men’s 50+ singles final, while third-seed Kavita Khanna (DUPR Rating 3.287) stunned top-seeded Babita Langthansa 11-3, 11-9 to win the women’s 50+ category title.