Mumbai is certainly a happy hunting place for Indian teenager Anahat Singh who emerged champion, convincingly winning the women’s crown in the JSW-Willingdon Little Masters and Senior Squash Open at the Worli Sports Club courts on Wednesday. This 4-star tournament is being conducted in association with the Professional Squash Association (PSA) and the Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI).
The 15-year-old National champion and top seed Anahat, playing in her third PSA Tour, was in a class of her own and with some clever deceptive play often wrong-footed the Japanese to dictate the rallies. Having taken control of the proceedings from the start she came out trumps, recording an 11-4, 11-3, and 11-7 win with a degree of comfort. This was Anahat’s fifth success after winning both the women’s and girls’ under-19 titles in the Bombay Gymkhana 46th Maharashtra State Open Squash last September and the 78th CCI Western India Slam Squash last December.
Later, India number two and top seed Abhay after initial resistance in the first game from second seed Suraj Kumar Chand finally found his range of shots and cruised to a smooth 11-9, 11-5, and 11-2 victory in the all-Indian men’s final.
Earlier in the under-17 competition, top seed Navya Sundararajan defeated second Chhavi Saran 11-4, 11-5, and 11-2 to win the girls title and in the boys’ final, second seed Yusha Nafees got the better of joint third-fourth seed Udit Mishra 11-8, 11-9, 11-1.
Results (all finals): Girls’ under-9: 2-Naina Anans bt 1-Ariana Almoula 8-11, 11-5, 5-11, 11-9, 11-7.
Boys’ under-9: 1-Vedant Shinde bt 3/ 4-Vishrut Arora 11-9, 11-3, 11-7.
Girls’ under-11: 1-Yashika Vinothkumar bt 2-Shanaya Parasrampuria 11-7, 6-11, 9-11, 14-12, 13-11.
Boys’ under-11: 1-Aaditya Shah bt 2-Dhairya Gogia 11-8, 11-5, 11-4.
Girls’ under-13: 3/ 4-Arnaa Dwivedi bt 1-Gauri Jaiswal 10-12, 11-6, 11-9, 16-14.
Boys’ under-13: 2-Dhruv Bopana bt 1-Swarit Patil 11-9, 11-3, 11-8.
Girls’ under-15: 1-Diva Shah bt 2-Kaashvi Mangal 11-7, 9-11, 11-4, 11-2.
Boys’ under-15: 1-Varun Shah bt 2-Savir Sood 11-7, 6-11, 11-5, 11-5.
Girls’ under-17: 1-Navya Sundararajan bt 2-Chhavi Saran 11-4, 11-5, 11-2.
Boys’ under-17: 2-Yusha Nafees bt 3/ 4-Udit Mishra 11-8, 11-9, 11-1.
Boys’ under-19: 2-Avalokit Singh bt 3/ 4-Ansh Tripathi 8-11, 11-6, 11-9, 11-1.
Women: 1-Anahat Singh (IND) bt 2-Erisa Sano Herring (JPN) 11-4, 11-3, 11-7.
Men: 1-Abhay Singh (IND) bt 2-Suraj Kumar Chand (IND) 11-9, 11-5, 11-2.
Men Over 35: Stephane Galifi bt Rohit Kadam 11-1, 11-1, 11-9
Men Over 45: 1-Sachin Jadhav bt 2-Hemant Nadkarni 11-8, 7-11, 11-9, 11-9.
Men Over 55: 1-Anil Mohite bt 2-Samir Khare 11-9, 13-11, 11-6.