SENIOR INTERSTATE SQUASH CHAMPIONSHIP

MAHARASHTRA BACK WHERE THEY BELONG

All Maharashtra Boys from left to right:  Supreet Singh, Manish Chotrani, Vikram Malhotra, Sandeep Jhangra, Rishad Pandole and Manek Mathur.  

Tamil Nadu, without Saurav Ghoshal, were like a ship without its rudder. They just could not pose a problem for Maharashtra who reclaimed the Inter-state squash title after a three-year gap. They had done the hat trick from 2000-03. Supreet Singh led the way beating an erratic Harinderpal Singh 3-0 in the first skirmish. Having coasted through 9-2, 9-4 in the first two sets, Supreet encountered a fightback before prevailing to put Maharashtra first up on the board. 

Boys Under-19 champion A Parthiban pulled one back for Tamil Nadu beating Sandeep Jangra. But Manek Mathur kept his cool to out out Cyril Kuhn in four. Rishad Pandole set the seal beating Parth Sharma. Manish Chotrani beat pro B Balamurugan in the `dead' rubber. 

RESULTS FINALS 

Maharashtra `A' bt Tamil Nadu 3-1
Supreet Singh bt Harinderpal Singh 9-2, 9-4, 9-7;
Sandeep Jangra lost to Partiban 7-9, 3-9, 4-9;
Manek Mathur bt Cyril Kuhn 9-5, 2-9, 9-2, 9-2;
Rishad Pandole bt Parth Sharma 9-5, 10-8, 9-7. 

SEMIFINALS 

TN bt Services `A' 4-1
B Balamurugan bt Shakti Singh 9-4,9-4,9-1;
Harinderpal Singh bt Vikas Jangra 9-4,3-9, 8-10, 9-6,9-6;
Navneet Narain bt A Parthiban 9-1,9-4,9-7;
AK Chaudhary bt Cyril Kuhn 9-3, 9-1, 9-7;
Parth Sharma bt D sisodia 9-4,9-7,9-1.

Maharashtra `A' bt Delhi 4-1
Supreet Singh lost to Gaurav Nandrajog 7-9, 9-1,9-1, 9-4;
Vikram Malhotra bt Varun Prakash 9-0,9-0,9-0;
Sandeep Jangra bt Dhruv Dhawan 9-5,9-2,9-5;
Rishad Pandole bt Naresh Kumar 9-5,9-0,7-9, 7-9, 9-5;

INDIA FINISH 11TH IN WORLD SQUASH 

India played a world team squash event after a gap of 10 years at Islamabad in December losing to Germany 0-3 for positions 9-12 but beating Netherlands to finish 11th. 

India got into the top 12 beating Ireland. India lost to Canada in the pre-quarter-finals. Canada rested former world No.1 Jonathan Power yet beat India 3-0 in the last 16. Ritwik made Graham Ryding go to extra points for his win in the first set. India lost to 3-0 to France in the league. It was only for the 6th time they appeared at the worlds. England bt Egypt 2-0 to reclaim the World Team squash title. 

RESULTS FINALS

England bt Egypt 2-0
James Willstrop bt Amr Shabana 4-9,9-6,9-3,9-1;
Peter Nicol bt Mohd Abbas 9-0,9-2,9-1;
Lee Beachill vs Karim Darwish (withdrawn).

ANWESHA HAS SURGED AHEAD 

The juniors girls squash scene in India is a two-filly race between Chennai lasses Deepika Pallikal and Anwesha Reddy.They keep trading titles. 

In the Mumbai squash week, Anwesha won the State Open title in the absence of Deepika Pallikal who skipped this event. She added this title to the big one the National Junior one  which was lying vacant as Joshna Chinappa had become senior. 

Anwesha's lone loss was at the Little Masters where Deepika beat her. So how did she go about picking up the pieces: ``At the Nationals   I was the second seed, and nothing to lose. So I played a tension-free game and benefited from it.'' 

Anwesha was inspired by the exploits of Malaysian girl Nicole David. She had become the World Junior champ then at the age of 15. (Nicole in December became the first World champ from Asia at Hong Kong). 

The chance came for Anwesha when there was a summer camp for kids. She enrolled and her sporting career was launched. 

Anwesha says her game has been based on systematic training of the ICL Academy where coaches like Maj Maniam, Cyrus Poncha, Rajiv Reddy have helped her. 

She was happy that the academy people like Ramachandran and Srivatsan were around to see her win at the Bombay Gymkhana courts. She would like to take squash as a career if the sponsorship scene improves and there's a chance to play at the Olympics. 

While that happens there’s enough incentive for these two lasses with the world juniors coming up January 2006 and also the Asian Seniors where they get another chance to team up with the squash queen Joshna Chinappa, with whom they played in the Asian Juniors in their hometown Chennai.