The Hindu : Sport : Joshna, Ritwik triumph

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 12, 2005

Sport

Sport

Joshna, Ritwik triumph

Nandakumar Marar

MUMBAI: Joshna Chinappa asserted once again that rivals need more than `josh' to catch up with her on fitness or finesse front. Covering court with grace and mixing deceptive crosscourt shots with languid drops, India's sporting hope foxed and frustrated Deepali Anvekar-Parikh in the 53rd senior National squash championships women's final, winning 9-4, 9-0, 9-2 under the lights at Bombay Gymkhana's glass-back courts.

Ritwik Bhattacharya regained the men's title, beating defending champion Sourav Ghosal 9-3, 3-9, 9-4, 9-5. Ritwik, India's highest-ranked pro in the World, expressed satisfaction on winning the title. "It is always good to compete with quality players like Saurav. He's the next strong player and it's good for India," he said.

The results (all finals): Women: Joshna Chinappa (TN) bt Deepali Anvekar-Parikh (Mah) 9-4, 9-0, 9-2. Men: Ritwik Bhattacharya bt Sourav Ghosal 9-3, 3-9, 9-4, 9-5. Professionals: B. Balamurugan (TN) bt Dalip Tripathi (Ben) 9-2, 2-9, 9-7, 9-2. 35-39: Darius Surti (Mah) bt Bobby Bajaj (Mah) 9-2, 9-2, 9-1. 40-44: Raj Arora (Mah) bt Deepak Kochhar (Mah) 2-9, 9-4, 9-3, 9-1. 45-49: Vaman Apte (Mah) bt V Laxman (TN) 9-7, 9-1, 9-3.

State Open: Boys: Under-19: A. Parthibhan (TN) bt Sandeep Jangra (Mah) 9-7, 8-10, 9-3, 5-9, 9-6. Under-17: Harinderpal Singh (TN) bt Vikram Malhotra (Mah) 8-10, 9-0, 9-1, 10-9. Under-15: Ravi Dixit (Del) bt Amay Merchant (Mah) 9-7, 9-5, 9-4. Under-13: Mahesh Mangaonkar bt Abhishek Pradhan 6-9, 2-9, 9-3, 9-2, 9-7. Under-11: Ishan Advani (Mah) bt Arjun Kochhar (Mah) 9-5, 9-4, 1-9, 9-7. Under-9: Kunj Rawani bt Aditya Khatri 4-9, 9-4, 9-6, 6-9, 9-4.

Girls: Under-19: Anwesha Reddy (TN) bt Madhura Paranjape (Mah) 9-4, 9-1, 9-4. Under-17: Surbhi Mishra (Raj) bt Shivangi Paranjape 9-7, 4-9, 9-5, 9-5. Under-15: Sachika Balwani (Mah) bt Saumya Karki 9-1, 4-9, 9-2, 9-7. Under-13: Ankita Sharma (Mah) bt Sachika Balwani (Mah) 9-6, 10-8, 9-5. Under-11: Lakshaya Raghavan (TN) bt Aishwarya Kulkarni (Mah) 9-4, 8-10, 9-0, 9-5.