TANA - BATA badminton tournament successful

Milpitas: Telugu Association of North America (TANA) in association with Bay Area Telugu Association (BATA) organized the inaugural Badminton Tournament on March 18th 2012 in Milpitas, California.

There was a huge response to the tournament in the inaugural year. 30 Men's Doubles teams, 24 Men's Single, 6 Women's Doubles teams, 8 Women's Singles Teams & 16 Mixed Doubles Teams enrolled in the tournament.

The games were very close and the audience witnessed a number of nail biter finishes in the tournament which started at 8AM and went all the way through 6PM. The enthusiastic spectators (consisting of spouses, children, family & friends) provided a lot of support by cheering their favorite teams.

The players responded equally by hitting spectacular smashes and displaying deft and finesse in drop shots. The women teams were very sportive and were cheered by their supports. Overall, the tournament was conducted in a very professional and organized manner to the audience & players delight.

During the award presentation ceremony, Vijaya Aasuri invited committee members onto the stage. The guests for the presentation included Jayaram Komati (Ex TANA President), Hemarao Nandipati (TANA RVP), Veeru Vuppala (TANA Joint Treasurer), Srinivas Kolli (BATA President) Yaswanth Kudaravalli ( TANA Sports Committee Chair) & Satish Vemuri.

Jayaram Komati speaking at this occasion congratulated the players for dedication to the game and their support for the tournament. Hema Rao Nandipati said TANA and BATA have been working as one to organize several events in the past several years and thanked Yaswanth for initiating the inaugural Shuttle Badminton tournament.

Srinivas Kolli (BATA President) said that BATA has been conducting annual Cricket cup and appreciated all the teams for enrolling in a short time and promised that the tournament next year will be announced much earlier in the year.

Srinivas Kolli introduced the BATA committee consisting of Ramesh Konda, Kamesh Malla, Kalyan Kattamuri, Vijaya Aasuri, Yaswanth Kudaravalli, Sirisha Battula and Jyotsna Bendapudi.

Yaswanth thanked all the volunteers who worked hard in organizing the tournament and umpiring through the day. Yaswanth recognized the volunteers Subhash, Sumanth, Hari, Shiva, Veeru Vuppala, Prasad Mangina, Ravi Thiruveedhula, and Karun Veligeti for their help in conducting this event.

He also thanked Manoj Krishnan, Veera, Bhanu, Govi, Kiran, Surendra, Sujith and all other participating members who assisted with umpiring the games, Srinivas Mutyala (TV9), Srikar Boddu (Photography) and Virijallu (Bay Area Telugu Radio) were specially thanked for tournament coverage.

Yaswanth conveyed a message from Prasad Thotakura (TANA President) congratulating all the Tournament Winners and thanking the volunteers for making the first in a series of Tournaments across USA, a resounding success.

The tournament winners were announced and trophies were presented by TANA representatives and BATA committee.

The following are the results from the tournament:

Winners (Men's Doubles): Ashwin Kolhe/Abhijit Ayarekar
Runners (Men's Doubles): Abhiram Parvataneni/Raghuram Parvataneni
Winners (Men's Singles): Raghuram Parvataneni
Runners (Men's Singles): Jared Babula
Winners (Mixed Doubles): Uday Patel/Surabhi Mittal
Runners (Mixed Doubles): Srinivas Nuthalapati/Sivakumari Chava
Winners (Women' Doubles): Firdose Kazi/Medha
Runners (Women's Doubles): Surekha/Sushma
Winners (Women's Singles): Indira
Runners (Women's Singles): Manasa