The Hindu : Sport / Squash : Tamil Nadu in both finals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 11, 2004

Sport

Sport - Squash

Tamil Nadu in both finals

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, DEC. 10. Host Tamil Nadu will take on New Delhi in the men's final of the inter-state senior national squash championship at the TNSRA courts on Saturday.

In the women's section also Tamil Nadu entered final.

The focus will be on the men's section for two reasons. One that it will be a repeat of the previous year's final in Kolkata where New Delhi stamped its authority in no uncertain terms and second that for the second time in a short time, the two key rivals, Ritwik Bhattacharya and Saurav Ghosal will clash again. From the strength of both sides and the way they progressed into the title round a top class contest is on the cards on the morrow.

In the semifinal on Friday, Tamil Nadu beat Services and it must be said not one of the three singles went beyond three games. If Bala Murugan was methodical in putting away Shakti Singh, Harinder Pal Singh was pugnacious in downing Tarun Nauni. As for Saurav Ghosal, it was a slow start, enough to encourage Vikas Jangra to vie for the first game but from game-ball, he lost and from there nothing could stop the newly crowned national champion as he hastened the finish with his characteristic all court craft. With the winning margin gained at that stage, the next two singles were not played.

Not much different was New Delhi's show over Maharashtra. Except for the first singles where Supreet Singh grabbed a game against Gaurav Nandrajog before ending on the losing side, Maharashtra never looked capable. Worsening its cause was the injury to Rishad Pandole, a carry over from a previous match, to ensure Ritwik `won' the match via walk over. Amjad Khan then completed the rout with a straight game win over Mahesh Verma, leaving the next two singles redundant.

The results: Men: semifinal: Tamil Nadu bt Services 5-0 (Bala Murugan bt Shakti Singh 9-2, 9-0, 9-1; Harinder Pal Singh bt Tarun Nauni 9-3, 9-7, 10-8; Saurav Ghosal bt Vikas Jangra 10-9, 9-4, 9-4; Rajat Johar w/o M. Sheketkar; A. Parthiban bt D. Sisodia) New Delhi bt Maharashtra 5-0 (Gaurav Nandrajog bt Supreet Singh 9-2, 9-7, 10-8; Ritwik Bhattacharya w/o Rishad Pandole; Amjad Khan bt Mahesh Verma 9-2, 9-0, 9-7; Mukhtiar Ali w/o Vikram Malhotra; Yashwardhan w/o Rushabh Vora ;(earlier matches): Maharashtra `B' bt Chattisgarh 5-0; New Delhi bt Services 5-0; Tamil Nadu `B' bt Chandigarh 4-1.

Women: Tamil Nadu bt Uttranchal 3-0 (Harita Omprakash bt Ranjana 9-0, 9-0, 9-1; Ritika Reddy bt Vedika 9-0, 9-0, 9-0; Aparajitha w/o Shruti).

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