THE 66th CCI-WESTERN INDIA
OPEN SQUASH TOURNAMENT
8th to 14th November, 2009
Gaurav retains title,
double for Saumya
Pradeep Vijayakar reports
Top seeds and favourites Gaurav Nandrajog and
Saumya Karki lived up to their reputations and bagged
the men’s and women’s titles, respectively, in the 66th CCI-Western
India Open Squash Tournament at the CCI on Saturday.
India No. 4 and defending champion Nandrajog rallied from a
0-2 deficit to overcome second seed Sandeep Jangra of the
Services 7-11, 5-11, 11-9, 11-4, 11-6 to retain his crown,
in a quality championship round that lasted 49 minutes.
Karki enjoyed a rewarding day following victories in the
women’s and girls’ under-19 finals and helped herself to a
grand double on an exciting day of squash.
Karki faced second seed Ankita Sharma in both finals and won
in contrasting fashion, with Sharma coming up with a strong
challenge in the women’s clash that could have gone either
way.
Boys under-19 top seed Ravi Dixit denied state mate
Vrishab Kotian a double with a 11-4, 11-4, 11-3
victory.
Kotian made amends by clinching the boys under-17 title as
the No. 1 seed following a hard-fought 11-5, 11-5, 10-12,
14-12 win with Borwankar springing up a late challenge.
Results
(All finals):
Men’s Open: 1-Gaurav Nandrajog (Delhi) bt 2-Sandeep Jangra
(Services) 7-11, 5-11, 11-9, 11-4, 11-6.
Women: 1-Saumya Karki (Hiranandani Club) bt 2-Ankita Sharma
(Otters Club) 11-7, 14-12, 10-12, 11-3.
Boys U-19: 1-Ravi Dixit (TN) bt 2-Vrishab Kotian (TN) 11-4,
11-4, 11-3.
Boys U-17: 1-Vrishab Kotian (TN) bt Akash Borwankar (Mumbai)
11-5, 11-5, 10-12, 14-12.
Boys U-15: 2-Vijay Kumar (Raj) bt 3/4-Raghav Mehrotra (CCI)
5-11, 11-2, 11-4, 11-7.
Boys U-13: 1-Yohan Pandole (Bombay Gym) bt 2-Kunj Rawani (NSCI)
11-7, 11-13, 11-5, 11-7.
Boys U-11: 3/4-Yash Bhargav bt 3/4-Chaitanya Shah (Bombay
Gym) 9-11, 9-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-3.
Girls U-19: 1-Saumya Karki (Hirnandani Club) bt 2-Ankita
Sharma (Otters Club) 11-9, 11-8, 11-7.
Girls U-15: 1-Urvashi Joshi (Jindal) bt 2-Aishwarya Kulkarni
(Jindal) 11-6, 11-4, 11-7.
Girls U-13: 1-Aishwarya Nambiar (Kandivli SC) bt 2-Jui
Kalgutkar (Chembur Gym) 11-8, 11-4, 11-6.
Girls U-11: 1-Nikita Joshi (Otters Club) bt 2-Daksha Pathak
(Jindal) 9-11, 4-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-6.
Under-9: 1-Veer Chotrani (Otters Club) bt Tushar Shahani
11-4, 11-6, 11-9.
Professionals: 1-Amjad Khan (Delhi) bt 2-Rohit More (CCI)
11-3, 12-10, 11-5.
Over-35: 1-Manish Chotrani (Khar Gym) bt Rishad Pandole (CCI)
11-9, 7-11, 11-8, 11-7.
Over-45: Vaman Apte (CCI) bt Anant More (CCI) 11-13, 11-0,
11-8, 11-6.
Over-55: Ramesh More (Bombay Gym) bt Ravi Puri (Bombay Gym)
11-5, 11-6, 11-7.
|
Chotrani
father-son duo enter final
Pradeep Vijayakar
Mumbai: Former international Manish Chotrani in the
over 35 and his eight-year-old son Veer entered
finals of their respective events in the 66th CCI-Western
India Open Squash Tournament at the CCI on Friday.
Manish beat Darius Surti 11-4, 12-10, 11-5 while Veer beat
Jash Chheda 11-7, 11-6, 11-7 he meets Tushar Shahani who
beat Yash Phadte 11-6, 11-7, 11-5.
A dramatic day of upsets also saw boys’ under-19 third seed
Tushar Kothari of Rajasthan, boys’ under-15 top seed
Abhimanyu Shah and boys’ under-11 top seed Dev Vazirani and
No. 2 Aryaman Adik crash out.
Staring at certain defeat, Rishad Pandole recovered from a
1-2 deficit and two match balls in the nail-biting and
crucial fourth game to romp to a pulsating 11-9, 5-11, 4-11,
12-10, 11-5 win in a match that went down to the wire.
Dangerous on his day, Pandole got off to a dream start after
snatching the opening game. But Jangra won the next two
quite comfortably and looked set to live up to his
reputation.
But just when it seemed all over for Pandole, Jangra
squandered a 10-8 lead in the fourth while being two match
balls away from victory. Pandole ignored the deficit and
rallied to save both in dramatic fashion to clinch the game
over extra points and force the decider.
Stung by Pandole’s brilliant comeback, a rattled Jangra lost
his way in the deciding fifth game as Pandole raced to an
early lead and took the match away.
Third seed Raghav Mehrotra of CCI registered his maiden
major victory when he beat boys’ under-15 top seed Abhimanyu
Shah of Bombay Gymkhana 3-1 to advance to the championship
round.
Fourth seed Yash Bhargav stunned No. 1 Dev Vazirani in a 3-2
thriller after rallying from 0-2 down, to set up a surprise
boys’ under-11 title clash with third seed Chaitanya Shah
who shocked No. 2 seed Aryaman Adik by the same margin in
another thrilling semi-final.
In the other upset of the day, fancied Pranay Merchant of
CCI halted third seed Tushar Kothari of Rajasthan with an
impressive 11-7, 11-7, 11-6 win in the boys under-19
quarter-finals.
|
|
21-Jun-09:
Sanjay Goyal leads
Team Ashour to victory
Pradeep Vijayakar reports
Mumbai: Sanjay Goyal led from the front, winning the
deciding ninth tie 3-0 against Ravindra Jagtap - to whom he
had lost earlier in the league - to give Team Ashour (named
after the world champ) a 5-4 win over Team Lincou and with
it the Bombay Gymkhana-SRAM squash league title.
The teams, which played over two months, were named after
the current greats of the game. Team Shabana beat Willstrop
5-4 for the third spot while Darwish finished fifth, beating
Gaultier.
The winners took home Rs 60,000. Goyal gave credit to
Siddharth Samantray and Aishwarya Kulkarni for their
consistent displays. The others to win were professional
Gopi Mohite, on his home courts, and Rohan Zaveri.
Jagtap is the father of Aditya, now training in Egypt with
Mahesh Manganokar. His agility would have shamed someone
half his 50-plus age.
Rajat Agarwal was adjudged player of the league. For
British lady Mandy Kennedy it was her last tournament
after a three an a half year stay in Mumbai where husband
Simon was posted and where son Ben played tennis after
squash. She won several titles in Mumbai and was adjudged
the best captain in the league.
Final:
Team Ashour bt Team Lincou 5-4
Kunwarpal Singh 0-3 Abhinav Sinha
Siddharth Samantray 3-0 Harjinder Singh
Gopi Mohite 3-1 Deepak Moolani
Karan Mirchandani 0-3 Pranay Merchant
Rohan Zaveri 3-0 Akhilesh Yadav
Rahel Fazelbhoy 2-3 Shashi Pandey
Jayanto Mukherjee 1-3 J Kuyte
Aishwarya Kulkarni 3-0 Aishwarya Bhattacharya
Sanjay Goyal 3-0 Ravindra Jagtap
Awards:
Ravi Puri (best senior), Chaitanya Shah (junior),
Aishwarya Kulkarni (girl); Mandy Kennedy
(captain); Player of league: Rajat Agarwal. |
Ritwik watches the finals
Top skipper Mandy
with Pradeep
|
Mumbai:
As the curtain fell on the 66th Cricket Club of India Squash
Championship of Western India on Saturday, a tournament has
the unique distinction of probably being the only squash
tournament in the world to run continuously, uninterrupted
for 66 years, some grand memories came back for Naval
Pandole, their squash secretary, whose family has
pioneered the sport in the metropolis.
