Squash Finals: Abhishek and Sanya emerge Victorious

Pic Caption: Jai Jhaveri, Co-Founder, 5 Sports (Left) with Varun Agarwal, Chairman Squash Sub-Committee, Otters Club & Rhea Bhandare, Co-Founder, 5 Sports (Center) with the winners of the Otters Club Vedanta Squash Open, Organized by 5 Sports, in association with Otters Club at their glass back squash courts.

Mumbai: Abhishek Agarwal and Sanya Vats won the Men’s and the Women’s titles of the Otters Club Vedanta Squash Open, Organized by 5 Sports, in association with Otters Club at their glass back squash courts.  Meanwhile, Veer Chotrani defeated Saksham Choudhary to take the U-19 Trophy.

Abhishek who had an easy victory over Sandeep Jangra on his way to the finals faced his toughest competition in unseeded Tushar Shahani who defeated the 2^nd seed Ranjit and was determined to win the competition. Tushar started the game on a high scoring back to back winners to race to a 6-1 lead in the first game but Abhishek who had a little trouble picking up the drop shots did not let the game slip away and came back strongly to level the scores at 8-8. Tushar managed to hold off Abhishek by blocking him just enough to avoid a replay and restricting his moment to take the first game 11-9. The second game was in complete control of Abhishek who made Tushar work all corners of the court before taking the game 11-4. Tushar had lost the intensity of his first game victory and made unforced errors at crucial moments which helped Abhishek take the 3^rd and 4^th games by 11-6, 11-6 and the championship by 9-11, 11-4, 11-6, 11-6.

In the^rd seed Sanya Vats secured an upset win over top seed Urwashi Joshi to take the women’s trophy home. It was a tough game with both players scoring back to back points in the first game, Sanya took a while to get used to Urwashi's serves but was able to intercept them as the game progressed which helped her to take the first game 11-8. Sanya made a few bad shot choices which cost her the second game as Urwashi edged past Sanya to an 8-11 victory. 3^rd and 4^th games saw no change in fortunes for Urwashi as Sanya managed to keep herself in the lead to win the championship by 11-8, 8-11, 11-8, 11-6.

Women’s finals, 3

In the Boys U-19 finals, Veer Chotrani dominated Saksham Choudhary winning the game 11-6, 9-11, 11-3, 11-4. Meanwhile, Aishwarya who lost out on an opportunity for a double title after losing to Sanya Vats in the semis fought hard to claim her U-19 title defeating a higher ranked Amira Singh in a game that went down the wire. It was a very tough game with nothing separating the two in the first 4 games with Amira winning the 1^st and 3^rd game while Aishwarya bouncing back to win the 2^nd & 4^th games all by an identical 11-9 margin. The fifth game was anti-climactic with Aishwarya stepping up and dominating Amira to take the 5^th game 11-2 and win the championship.

Results

Men’s Finals

Abhishek Agarwal [3/4] bt Tushar Shahani 9-11 11-4 11-6 11-6                    

Women’ Finals

Sanya Vats [3/4] bt Urwashi Joshi [1] 11-8 8-11 11-8 11-6

Boy’s U-19 Finals

Aishwarya Khubchandani [5/8] bt Amira Singh [3/4]9-11 11-9 9-11 11-9 11-2

Girl’s U-19 Finals

Veer Chotrani [1] bt Saksham Choudhary [3/4] 11-6 9-11 11-3 11-4