Kanpur: The pair of AK Sinha (Lucknow) and Kingshuk Bhattacharya (West Bengal) is sitting at the top after six rounds with 84.36 VPs on the opening day of the All-India Sir Padampat Singhania Invitational Pairs Bridge Tournament at Cawnpore Club Cantt on Friday. The duo secured the top position in the fifth round with the highest total of 75.35 VPs. The West Bengal pair of Soumdeep Ghosh and Arya Chakraborty was in second place with 76.63 VPs. They were placed second after four rounds and successfully maintained their position thereafter. Another West Bengal pair, Prosenjit Manna and Prasun Kumar Mukhopadhyaya, who had led in an earlier round, slipped to fourth place after the fifth round. However, displaying better coordination, they bounced back to claim third place with 76.60 VPs. Meanwhile, the West Bengal pair of Sourendra Coomer Dutt and Swapan Some delivered a remarkable performance to secure third place with 65.08 VPs, moving up from sixth place after Round 4. However, in the sixth round, they slipped to fourth place with 74.58 VPs. The pair of Avijit Sarkar and Mukund Jaganathan made a strong comeback to claim fifth place. Defending champion Gopi Nath Manna, partnering with Pijush Baroi this time, was placed eighth with 67.99 VPs. The women’s pair from Rabidpura village (MP), Vidyapati Patel and Kalpana Gurjar, was placed 21st with 51.49 VPs. The local pair of IP Jain and Mukul Arren was 23rd with 45.54 VPs, while the women’s duo of Divya and Sanjul Shukla finished last (26th) with 22.96 VPs. Earlier in the morning, chief guest and deputy managing director of JK Cement Ltd, Ajay Kumar Saraogi, inaugurated the tournament. Others present included BFI president Prasad Keni, Kailashpati Singhania Sports Foundation chairman Anil Kumar Agarwal, organising secretary Jitendra Awasthi, tournament director VK Sharma, and Sports Head of JK Cement, Sukhvindar Singh.
