Dubai: The Indian High School, Dubai, team bagged gold medals in the CBSE National Tennis Championship for Under-14 girls held in India.
They won the team championship after beating Delhi Public School from Surat 2-0 in the final, while Rikeeta Pereira bagged the individual championship gold medal in the Under-14 girls singles event, defeating Dwani Kumar of Kensri School, Bengaluru 7-2.
Speaking to Gulf News, Tapan Das, the Head of the Physical Education Department at the Indian High School, who supervised the team during the Indian tour, said: "It was indeed a creditable show by our school. Our team did not lose any match in the championship and came out with flying colours competing against top school teams in India."
"Rikeeta (Pereira), who is a student from Grade IX, stood out, winning all her matches in the individual championship to score an emphatic victory in the final. We are the only team in the championship to win both the gold medals," Das said.
The Indian High School tennis team, made up of Pereira and grade eight students Rhea Rosa John and Divya D Guwalani, began their campaign by beating Cambridge School from Jalandhar 2-0 in the league phase. In the next match, the following day, they went on to beat Sawai Mansingh High School from Jaipur by an identical margin.
The Indian High School team finished on top of pool A, beating Bala Vidhyamandir from Chennai 2-0, and thus qualified for the knock out stage. In the quarter-final they raced past Fahaheel Al Watanieh Indian Private School DPS from Kuwait 2-1.
In the semi-final, the Indian High School girls stopped Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School from Chandigarh 2-0 to breeze into the final. The team emerged victorious in the final, beating Delhi Public School to remain unbeaten throughout the tournament.
Pereira then went on to win the final of the individual singles event.
