Defending Champion and Top Seed Jannia Singh of Chandigarh fought valiantly against Amita Gondi of Telangana to take the Women’s U-19 title 11-3, 12-10, 9-11, 9-11, 11-8 in a 5 game thriller at the ongoing Otters Club Open Squash Tournament 2019 co-sponsored by Mahindra Rise and played at the Otters Club Squash courts on Saturday. Adivait Adik of Maharashtra took down a higher-ranked Diwakar Singh of UP in straight games to take the boy’s U-19 trophy.
Advait Adik and Jannia Singh are all smiles after winning their Boy’s & Girls U-19 championships at the ongoing Otters Club Open Squash Tournament .
In the Girls U-19 finals, Jannia Singh of Chandigarh who is the defending champion, lived up to her top billing as she fought tooth and nail against Amita Gondi of Telangana to win the U-19 title in an epic 5 game thriller. Jannia started with a bang breezing past a nervous Amita to take the first game 11-3. Amita came back strongly and matched Jannia in every point to take the game to 10-10 and force a tie-breaker. Just when Amita looked strong, Jannia pulled off some impossible shots to take 2 back to back points taking the 2nd game 12-10 to maintain her lead. After being head to head for the major part of the 3rd game, Amita stepped up and scored back to back points to edge past Jannia securing an 11-9 win. Amita kept the flow going in the 4th game giving her 100% and pushing Jannia to all corners of the court to win the game by 11-9 to level the scores at 2-2. It was a nailbiting final game as both players did not allow each other any room to take the game away. The match was perfectly balanced at 8-8 and just when it looked like anyone’s game, Jannia scored 3 back to back points to take the game 11-8 and the finals by 11-3, 12-10, 9-11, 9-11, 11-8.
In the Boy’s U-19 finals, Adivait Adik of Maharashtra showed character to overcome a higher-ranked Diwakar Singh and secure an 11-5, 12-10, 12-10 victory. Advait started strong against the 5th seed and took the first game 11-5. After the 1st game setback, Diwakar came back hard and made it difficult for Advait to run away with the game. Advait kept his cool during the tiebreaker and played some incredible drop shots to take the 2nd game 12-10. Diwakar who took out the top seed on his way to the final found it difficult to ward off Advait’s attack and after being ahead in the 3rd game at 10-8 Diwakar faltered, enabling Advait to score 4 back to back points and clinch the championship
In the Men’s and Women’s Open, Aparajitha Balamurukan of Tamil Nadu shocked everyone as she played the best match of her tournament to take down the 2nd seed Sachika Balvani of Maharashtra and seal her place in the Women’s finals. Aparajitha had a winning start taking the 1st 2 games 11-7, 11-9 and put Sachika under pressure. Aparajitha was going head to head and poised and had set herself up to win the 3rd game but Sachika rallied hard to clinch back to back points to survive the 3rd game by 11-8. Aparajitha proved to be too strong as she managed to keep her nerves to secure an 11-9 victory and advance to the finals. Top seed Urwashi of Maharashtra had an easy outing as she defeated her state-mate Sanika Choudhari in straight games to advance to the finals.
In the Men’s tie, Top seed Abhishek Pradhan & youngster Rahul Baitha secured convincing victories to advance to the finals.
Girls U-19 finals
Jannia Singh [1] bt Amita Gondi [3/4] 11-3, 12-10, 9-11, 9-11, 11-8
Boy’s U-19 finals
Advait Adik [9/16] bt Diwakar Singh [5/8] 11-5, 12-10, 12-10
Women’s Open Semi-Finals
Urwashi Joshi [1] bt Sanika Choudhari [3/4] 11-4 11-6 11-4; Aparajitha Balamurukan [3/4] bt Sachika Balvani [2] 11-9 11-7 8-11 11-9
Men’s Open Semi- Finals
Abhishek Pradhan [1] bt Neel Joshi [9/16] 11-9 11-4 11-1; Rahul Baitha [5/8] bt Vikas Mehra [5/8]
16-14 9-11 13-11 11-9;