The Hindu : Saurav, Joshna bag titles

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 19, 2003

Sport

Sport - Squash

Saurav, Joshna bag titles

By Our Special Correspondent

CHAMPS ALL: The winners of various categories in the National junior and sub-junior championship in Chennai on Saturday. Standing (from left): Joshna Chinappa, (girls' under-19), Saurav Ghosal (boys' under-19), Harinderpal SIngh (boys' under-15) and Sandeep Jangra (boys' under-17). Sitting: Srivatsan Subramaniam, Secretary, TNSRA, Shekhar Dutt, Director General, SAI, and N. Ramachandran, General Secretary, SRFI. Kneeling: Mahesh Mangaolkar (boys' under-11), Ramit Tandon (boys' under-19), Sachika Balwani (girls' under-11), Shibani Philip (girls' under 15), Anwesha Reddy (girls' under-13) and Alisha Mashruwala (girls' under-17).

CHENNAI OCT 18. With a clutch of five titles out of 10 at stake, host Tamil Nadu finished with a rich haul in the national junior/sub-junior squash championship, which concluded at the TNSRA-SDAT courts on Saturday.

If Saurav Ghosal, easily a star among the current day juniors in the country expectedly retained the under-19 title, the other champion Joshna Chinappa, went through the motions against Alisha Mashruwala (who had already bagged the under-17 title) to add one more national title to her kitty. It was extreme humility on Saurav's part that at the prize distribution function he requested the small crowd to cheer his opponent Gaurav Nandrajog for, as he put it, "he was in his last year in the junior ranks". Indeed Gaurav would have loved to hear that cheer for a title win and he truly tried hard for it.

Such a bubbling bundle of energy is he that Sourav relishes the fast game and finishes points with aplomb either through steeply angled nicks to the corner or the deceptively executed straight drives that would leave Gaurav lunging helplessly. In between he can be delicate too with the drop shots. Vikram Malhotra, the top seed from Maharashtra, failed to wrest the under-15 title. The Tamil nadu youngster, Harinderpal Singh ensured that with a crisp game. Aside from skill, the match tested the players' stamina level to the hilt and Vikram was to fall there. However for Sandeep Jangra it was confirmation once again that he was the best under-17 in the country today. Particularly after he beat Tamil Nadu's key hope A. Parthiban twice inside a week.

After Parthiban's fine show in ousting the second seed Manek Mathur in the semifinals, there were high hopes that he would produce another class act. Sandeep proved different. That Parthiban could never dictate terms at any point amply reflected the Maharashtra lad's surpemacy.

Another phenomenal performance came from the Churchpark Convent girl, V. Anwesha Reddy who ousted the reigning champion and favourite Dipika Pallikal for the Under-13 title. Consistency marked Anwesha's performance and it helped her when Dipika committed several unforced errors. Anwesha also received a special prize for her fine effort.

Shibani Philip was the other successful player for Tamil Nadu and it was a marathon session in the under-15 section that she had against Madhura Paranjpe (Mah) after bouncing back from a game down.

Mr. Shekar Dutt, Director General, SAI gave away the prizes. Mr. N. Ramachandran, Secretary, SRFI in his welcome address said 15 boys had been shortlisted from the just concluded championship keeping in mind the World junior championship next year in Pakistan. He expressed his happiness over Tamil Nadu's unprecedented success and thanked all concerned.

The results (finals):

Boys: Under-19: Saurav Ghosal (TN) bt Gaurav Nandrajog (ND) 9-7, 9-6, 9-7; Under-17: Sandeep Jangra (Mah) bt A. Parthiban (TN) 9-0, 9-4, 9-7; Under-15: Harinderpal Singh (TN) bt Vikram Malhotra (Mah) 9-5, 7-9, 9-7, 8-10, 9-5; Under-13: Ramit Tandon (WB) bt Ravi Dixit (ND) 9-3, 9-7, 9-4; Under-11: Mahesh Mangaonkar (Mah) bt Abhisek Pradhan (Mah) 9-5, 9-3, 9-7.

Girls: Under-19: Joshna Chinapa (TN) bt Alisha Mashruwala (Mah) 9-3, 9-6, 9-4; Alisha Mashruwala (Mah) bt Sruthi Reddy (TN) 9-5, 9-3, 9-5; Under-15: Shibani Philip (TN) bt Madhura Paranjpe (Mah) 5-9, 9-6, 9-2, 8-10, 9-3; Under-13: V. Anwesha Reddy (TN) bt Dipika Pallikal (TN) 10-8, 6-9, 9-3, 9-3; Under-11: Sachika Balwani (Mah) bt Ankita Sharma (Mah) 8-10, 9-0, 9-3, 9-5.

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