Mumbai : Top seeds Tushar Shahani of Maharashtra and Ashita Pranaya Bhengra of Tamil Nadu marched into the boys’ and girls’ under-17 finals respectively in the Rs 6.5 lakh prize-money NSCI Indian Classic Junior Open Squash Championship 2016, an SRFI 4-Star sanctioned and an ASF Silver event, and which is being conducted and hosted by NSCI.
In the boys’ semi-final encounter, Tushar had to bring out his best to get past a fighting Utkarsh Baheti of Rajasthan, the joint 3-4th seed in four tough games at the NSCI glass-back courts on Saturday afternoon.
Tushar started positively to win a close opening game but could not stop Utkarsh from winning the second to level the scores. However, Tushar kept his cool and won crucial points in the next two games to close out the match to take his place in the summit round.
The second semi-final, which was an all-Maharashtra affair, witnessed a grim battle for supremacy before Arman Jindal warded off a strong fight from unseeded Veer Chotrani to snatch a decisive 3-2 verdict in the only match that went the distance in little less than 50 minutes. Arman after starting with a flourish by taking the first game in just 5 minutes, thereafter, lost his rhythm and conceded the next two to trail 1-2. However, he managed to regain his composure and played sensibly to pocket the third over extra points to force the decider. In the fifth game Veer was a lot erratic and Arman capitalized on the situation to win the deciding game and complete a hard-earned 11-6, 5-11, 12-14, 12-10, 11-6.
In the girls’ under-17 last four match, Ashita was in complete control and charged to a straight games win against the joint 3-4th seed Navmi Sharma of Maharashtra. Ashita was dominant from the start and with Navmi not up to the challenge, she raced to a comfortable 11-6, 11-5, 11-5 victory and will meet second seed Nikita Joshi of Maharashtra in the final.
Nikita prevailed over Telangana’s joint 3-4th seed Amita Gondi in three long games winning at 11-9, 11-9, 11-9.
Hong Kong’s top seed Tin Yan Lau and Sin Yuk Chan, both easily won their respective girls’ under-15 semi-final ties to set up a summit clash. Tin Yan defeated Maharashtra’s 3-4th seed Ananya Dabke 11-8, 11-5, 11-8, while Sin Yuk overcame Avani Nagar also from Maharashtra 11-4, 11-7, 11-9.
