Abhishek Pradhan and Urwashi Joshi of Maharashtra proved their worth as they took down Rahul Baitha and Aparajitha Balamurukan in straight games to clinch the Men’s and Women’s title at the Otters Club Open Squash Tournament 2019 co-sponsored by Mahindra Rise and played at the Otters Club Squash courts on Sunday.
In the women’s finals, Urwashi was up against Aparajitha of Tamil Nadu who has had a great tournament beating some of the top players including 2nd seed Sachika Balvani on her way to the finals. Aparajitha who was expected to give a tough fight looked completely out of sorts in the first game where she managed to score only 1 point handing Urwashi a dominating 11-1 victory. Urwashi, who has not dropped a single game in the tournament proved to be an unstoppable force as she ran through Aparajitha 11-6 to take a 2 game lead. In the third game, Aparajitha managed to pull herself back and did not allow Urwashi to race away with the game. After being head to head for the major part, Urwashi took her game to the next level and scored back to back points to secure an 11-8 victory and successfully complete her title defence with an 11-1, 11-6, 11-8 victory.
In the Men’s finals, Top seed and India no 6 Abhishek Pradhan managed to squash Rahul Baitha’s dream of winning the Men’s Championship. The match started with both players scoring back to back and match each other in skills and speed. Abhishek tried to tire Rahul making him work hard for his points but Rahul seemed to have all the answers and forced the game to a tiebreaker at 10-10. Abhishek kept his nerves and made no mistakes to score 2 back to back points and take the 1stgame 12-10. After the first game challenge, Rahul’s powers seemed to be dwindling as he could not manage to gain any momentum. Abhishek took advantage of this and took the 2nd and 3rd games 11-5, 11-6 to seal the Men’s Championship.
Women’s Open Finals
Urwashi Joshi [1] bt Aparajitha Balamurukan [3/4] 11-1 11-6 11-8
Men’s Open Finals
Abhishek Pradhan [1] bt Rahul Baitha [5/8] 12-10 11-5 11-6