British Junior Squash Open Day2
Jan 4, 2007 Leave a comment
Ramit Tandon came up with his best squash in the past few months to defeat Malaysia’s Cheong Kah Wah in an exhilarating 5-game, 65 minutes encounter. This victory is sweet revenge for 14-year old Ramit, who had lost to Cheong in straight games last week in at the Scottish Open and also at the Asian Junior Individual Championship in June 2006.
Losing the first game 6-9, Ramit came back strongly to win the second. Although the game was close Ramit played some blistering nicks on his drops and volley drops, looking very confident and for the first time keeping Wah behind him. Wah regrouped and kept the pressure to win the third in quick time, and Ramit had to pull out all his resources to retrieve Wah’s shots to the front before winning the fourth 9-3. A tense fifth looked on the cards, but Ramit raced to a 6-0 lead and Cheong caved in. The final score was 6-9, 9-7, 1-9, 9-3, 9-1.
Joining Ramit in the top 16, were Ravi Dixit and Aditya Jagtap who defeated England’s Robert Downer 9-4, 9-1, 9-2 and Pakistan’s Arbab Dilawar 9-5, 9-1, 9-6. Cyril Kuhn also had a 5-game victory in the Boys U17 against Egypt’s Omar Magdy Ghanem, winning 7-9, 9-5, 9-2, 7-9, 9-7. Mahesh Mangaonkar beat Jordanian Ahmad Al Saraj 5-9, 9-0, 9-0, 9-5 in the Boys U13.
The only disappointment of the day was Dipika Pallikal losing to Japan’s Misaki Kobayashi in the round of 16. Dipika, playing her second match of the day, looked in terrific form when she won her first two games comprehensively. Her short kills on both flanks were lethal and Misaki had no answer. At 8-6 match ball in the third it looked like it was all over for Misaki who staged a remarkable comeback. Moving Dipika to the front of the court with her boasts and counter drops, she often caught Dipika on the wrong foot. Misaki continued to move Dipika to all corners and had her frustrated as she completed a remarkable 4-9, 4-9, 10-8, 9-1, 9-1 recovery.
The girls under 13 start tomorrow with all five Indian girls playing their opening matches.
Every year promising junior squash players all over the world especially from India, Egypt, Malaysia, Pakistan make their way to UK for the British and 
ICL Academy’s Gaurav Nandrajog came from behind to beat compatriate Harinderpal Singh 3-2 and win the men event at the HSBC 31st Maharashtra State Open Squash Championships held at the Bombay Gymkhana, Mumbai. Gaurav beat Harinder 2-9 7-9 10-8 9-0 9-2 in a match lasting over an hour. Women: Mandy Kennedy (England) bt Shivangi Paranjpe (Mah) 7-9, 9-4, 9-6, 9-4. Boys U-19: Sandeep Jangra (Mah) bt Vikram Malhotra (Mah) 9-1, 9-7, 7-9, 9-4. Boys U-17: Vikram Malhotra (Mah) bt Cyril Kuhn 9-0, 9-2, 9-2. Boys U-15: Aadit Zaveri (Mah) bt Abhishek Pradhan (Mah) 9-0, 9-3, 9-0. Boys U-13: Mahesh Mangaonkar (Mah) bt Shashi Pandey (Jindal) 9-3, 9-1, 9-2. Boys U-11: Raghav Mehrotra (Mah) bt Yohan Pandole (Mah) 9-3, 9-7, 9-5. Girls U-19: Shivangi Paranjpe (Mah) bt Madhura Paranjpe (Mah) 9-1, 9-1, 9-1. Girls U-17: Shaheda Madraswala (Mah) bt Namrata Purohit (Mah) 9-1, 9-7, 9-5. Girls U-15: Ankita Sharma (Mah) bt Soumya Karki (Mah) 6-9, 5-9, 9-6, 9-4, 9-1. Girls U-13: Soumya Karki (Jindal) bt Sachika Balvani (Mah) 9-5, 2-9, 9-6, 10-9. U-9: Rajat Agarwal (Mah) bt Sandeep Paswan (Jindal) 9-6, 9-2, 9-3. Over-35: Manish Chotrani (Mah) bt Jehangir Surti (Mah) 9-0, 9-0, 9-0. Over-45: Chandrakant Pawar (Mah) bt Anant More (Mah ) 9-4, 9-5, 4-9, 10-8. Over-55: Kishanlal Passi (Mah) bt Haresh Melwani (Mah)9-6, 9-1, 9-4. Professionals: Dalip Tripathi bt Mahesh Verma (Mah) 9-1, 9-2, 9-1
