Published 18:57 IST, October 20th 2019
Piyush Goyal says, "Proud Moment for Railways" as Sekhar wins gold
Piyush Goyal took Twitter to congratulate and expressed his happiness over Prithvi Sekhar's win in the men’s final of the World Deaf Tennis Championship
Union Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal on Sunday took to micro-blogging website Twitter to congratulate and express his happiness over Prithvi Sekhar's win in the men’s final of the World Deaf Tennis Championship held in Turkey. Union Minister Goyal said that it was a proud moment for the Railway family as Prithvi Sekhar, who belongs to the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai bagged the gold medal. Sekhar beat Jaroslav Smedek of the Czech Republic to win the final on Saturday. As Sekhar bagged gold, Riya Bhatia reached the women’s singles final of the $25,000 ITF tournament in Lagos, Nigeria and is set to face fourth seed Nastja Kolar in the final.
Memorable Season for Prithvi Sekhar
Prithvi Sekhar put on a spectacular show as he dominated the final throughout against third seed Jaroslav Smedek of the Czech Republic. The 26-year-old beat his counterpart 6-4, 6-3 and had a wonderful tournament as he did not drop a single set in the tournament. Sekhar, who is trained in Chennai by coach Sureshkumar Sonachalam, dominated throughout the tournament as he beat four seeded players including the top seed Gabor Mathe of Hungary. Apart from winning the World Deaf Tennis Championship, Prithivi also won the doubles bronze medal with Prashanth Dasharath Harsambhavi and was also part of the Indian Railways team that bagged gold in the World Railways Tennis Championship held in Albena, Bulgaria. In the last Deaflympics which was held in 2017, Prithvi had won the mixed bronze with Jafreen Shaikh whereas Prithvi also made it to the quarterfinals of singles and doubles, both, in the last World Deaf Championship.
Updated 19:34 IST, October 20th 2019