Caption: from L to R - Aishwarya Khubchandani, Rhea Bhandare, Co-Founder, 5 sports, Veer Chotrani, Annanya Agarwal, President, Vedanta Sports, Parth Ambani, Jay Jhaveri Co-founder, 5 Sports, make for a happy picture at a press meet and greet to announce the launch of Otters Club Vedanta Squash Open, to be organized by 5 Sports, in association with Otters Club at their glass-back squash courts from April 9 to 13, 2019.
Mumbai 5th April: The Otters Club squash courts will witness top-quality action from India’s leading senior and junior squash players who will vie for top honours in the Otters Club Vedanta Squash Open, to be organized by 5 Sports, in association with Otters Club at their glass-back squash courts from April 9 to 13, 2019. Due to the overwhelming response, Khar Gymkhana will also be hosting the first 2days of the tournament. The Otters Club Vedanta Squash Open is a PSA satellite event and a 3-Star tournament on the Indian Junior squash circuit.
The tournament is sponsored by Vedanta and organized by 5 sports while Otters Club is the venue partner. Both the events will be organized under the aegis of Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI), Maharashtra Squash Rackets Association (MSRA) and Professional Squash Association (PSA), World body for squash. Given the tournament is a PSA satellite event this will help the professional players to score points on the PSA circuit
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Anil Agarwal, Chairperson Vedanta said, “Vedanta is actively working towards making India a powerhouse for sports. We are doing this through various grass-root level sports development initiatives. In addition to our strong presence in football, we are very pleased to associate with this squash tournament, especially with an added focus on young players in the competition. We hope many of the competing boys and girls will go on to do our country proud at the global stage, and in turn encourage more youngsters to pursue sports as a serious career option.
Adding to the conversation Mr Annanya Agarwal, President, Vedanta Sports Said, "Indian squash is indeed going places with our men and women players making their mark on the global stage, and we are extremely happy to associate with the Otters Club Vedanta Squash Open. It is great that the tournament is giving an opportunity for young girls and boys to play competitive squash at the highest level, apart from the women's and men's open. The field for the event looks really strong and competitive across all the categories, and we are surely in for an exciting tournament."
The junior tournament has attracted entries from leading Indian players. According to the Championship Director Srikanth Seshadri, the event has received 446 entries across the categories of Boys and Girls under 11, 13, 15, 17, 19 and Men & Women.
In the Boys U-19 draw, India No. 4 & 5, Veer Chotrani and Tushar Sahani of Maharashtra lead the field, followed by India No. 11 Deepak Mandal in third place
Jannia Singh of Chandigarh, who won an Otters Club tournament last August, will lead the Girls U-19 field followed by Tanaya M Parakh of West Bengal. Amira Singh and Bhavana Goyal are the joint 3rd and 4th seeds. 15 year old Ashiwarya Khuchandani seeded in the 5/8 bracket will be competing with the Top U-19 player
The Tournament has a total prize fund of Rs 5 lakh, from which Rs 3 lakh is allotted for the juniors, while Rs 2 lakh is up for grabs among the open category
Maharashtra has the highest number of participants with 262 entries, while the tournament will also see substantial participation from Delhi, Chandigarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu, among others.
Elaborating on the tournament Rhea Bhandare, Co-Founder, 5 Sports said, “The Otters Club Vedanta Squash Open is only our 3rd endeavour at conducting a national/international squash tournament but the response from the squash fraternity has been overwhelming. We have got close to 450 entries from 23 different states and the level of play that will be demonstrated from 9th to 13th of April 2019 is surely going to be worth witnessing as the participants registered under each category are amongst the best players in the country.”
Jay Jhaveri, Co-Founder, 5 Sports further added “We have got a great field in the senior category with the top men and women players participating in the first edition. Vijay Kumar and Ranjit singh will lead the field for men while India no 3 & 5 Urvashi Joshi and Sachika Balvani are top-seeded in the women’s category. We are grateful to Vedanta for their support and we wish to make this tournament a regular occurrence on the Indian Squash Circuit
Services lead the men’s field with India No 7 and 9 Vijay Kumar and Ranjit Singh on the top of the seeding list followed by India no 10 Jamal Sakib, who is seeded in the 5/8 bracket. Abhishek Agarwal of Maharashtra is seeded in the 3/4 bracket.
In the women’s draw, India No 3 Urvashi Joshi and India No 5 Sachika Balvani of Maharashtra are the top two seeds. India No 12 Aradhana Kasturiraj is the 3rd seed and India No 10 Sanya Vats, who is currently No. 1 in the juniors ranking are placed in the 5/8 bracket.
Seeding list:
Men: Vijay Kumar,1 Ranjit Singh, 2, Abhishek Agarwal, 3/4 , Jamal Sakib 5/8, Gaurav Nandrajog 5/8, Guhan Senthilkumar 5/8, Naveen Jangra 5/8, Rahul Baitha 9/16, Abhinav Sinha 9/16
Women: Urwashi Joshi (Mah) 1, Sachika Balvani 2, Aaradhana Kasturiraj 3/4 , Sanya Vats5/8, Chayanika Changkakoti 5/8, Divyakriti Singh 5/8, Prapti Salunkhe 5/8, Radhika Rathore 5/8
Boys’ U-19: Veer Chotrani 1, Tushar Shahani 2, Deepak Mandal 3/4, Saksham Choudhary 5/8, Aarash Mehta 5/8, Avinash Yadav 5/8, Diwakar Singh 5/8, Vivaan Jaikishan 9/16, Abhishek Kumar 9/16,
Girls’ U-19: Jannia Singh 1, Tanaya M Parakh 2, Amira Singh 3/4 ,Bhavana Goyal 3/4, Aishwarya Khubchandani 5/8, Anjali Devi 5/8, Anjali Kumari 5/8, Rewa Bharma 5/8
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