Mumbai: Maharashtra’s Navmi Shah and Goa’s Yash Fadte emerged champions in the girls’ and boys’ under-19 crowns respectively, in of the Rs 5.5 lakhs prize money 4th NSCI All India Open (Junior and Senior) Squash tournament, which concluded at the NSCI glass court here on Wednesday.
The top-seed Navmi encountered a strong challenge from compatriot Bhavna Goyal the joint third fourth seed before clinching a close 3-2 win in an absorbing and tense girls’ under-19 final at the glass courts at NSCI on Wednesday.
The contest between the two Mumbai based girls was an exciting contest as both Navmi and Bhavna slugged it out and fought hard for every point as the match went to the fifth game. In te decider Navmi held her nerves and to snatch a 11-5, 9-11, 11-2, 10-12, 11-6 victory.
Earlier, the Goan lad Yash stamped his authority by comfortably defeating Maharashtra’s Tushar Shahani in three long games. Both Yash and Tushar were cautious and were engaged in long rallies and waited for the opponent to make the mistake.
The fitter Yash after taking the first game started to dominate the rallies against Tushar and slowly but steadily went on to coast to victory sealing a satisfying 11-6, 11-5 and 11-5 win. This was Yash’s fifth triumph in the NSCI tournament.
Both Navami and Yash were presented with the champions trophy and a cash award of Rs 18,880 while Bhavna and Tushar received a cash prize of Rs 11,210.
Second seed Aishwarya Khubchandani produced an impressive performance and hit some superb winners to outplay top seed Ananya Dabke by smoothly cruising to a 11-5, 11-3, 11-4 win an all-Maharashtra girls’ under-17 final.
In the boys’ undwer-17 final, which was also a contested between two Maharashtra players, top seed Arnaav Sareen tamed Tanay Punjabi 11-9, 11-6, 11-3 to emerge champion.
Results (all finals)
Girls (U-11): 1-Akanksha Gupta (MH) bt Anika Dubey (MH) 11-3, 11-6, 11-7. Under-13: 3/4-Anahat Singh (DL) bt 1-Unnati Tripathi (UK) 11-6, 11-9, 11-5. Under-15: 3/4-Kaavya Bansal (MH) bt 1-Aasya Patel (MP) 12-10, 9-11, 11-9, 11-5. Under-17: 2-Aishwarya Khubchandani (MH) bt 1-Ananya Dabke (MH) 11-5, 11-3, 11-4. Under-19: 1-Navmi Sharma (MH) bt 3/4-Bhavna Goyal (MH) 11-5, 9-11, 11-2, 10-12, 11-6
Boys (U-11): 1-Subhash Choudhary (RJ) bt 2-Rachit Shah (MH) 11-5, 11-8, 11-7. Under-13: 2-Ekambir Singh (MH) bt 1-Vivaan Bhatia (MH) 11-6, 11-6, 11-6. Under-15: 1-Paarth Ambani (MH) beat 2-Rutva Samant (MH) 11-8, 13-11, 11-2. Under-17: 1-Arnaav Sareen (MH) beat Tanay Punjabi (MH) 11-9, 11-6, 11-3. Under-19: 3/4-Yash Fadte (GA) beat Tushar Shahani (MH) 11-6, 11-5, 11-5.
