Rayhan Walia of Maharashtra exhibited plenty of resilience and strong fighting qualities as he recovered from the loss of the opening two games to put it across Vikas Chand of Delhi 3-2 in a boy’s under-15 first round match of the Rs 6 lakh prize-money NSCI Junior Open Squash 2015, an SRFI 4-Star Ranking event, and played at the NSCI’s glass-back courts, Worli, on Saturday.
Udit Sharma
In a keenly contested tussle, Rayhan made multiple errors initially and paid the penalty as he conceded a 0-2 to his Delhi rival. But, thereafter he applied himself much better, cut down on his mistakes and just kept it tight as he went on win the next three games to wrap up the match at 9-11, 8-11, 11-4, 11-0, 11-7.
In another engrossing battle, Tamil Nadu’s Roshan Rajkumar prevailed over Maharashtra’s Krish Shah in five long drawn games. Roshan and Krish shared the first four games before the more experienced Tamil Nadu lad took total control in the decider which he won to complete a hard-earned 14-12, 6-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-5 victory.
Joining Roshan in the second round were his compatriots, R Kishore Arvind and Nikhil Jason. While Arvind had an easy outing defeating Rohan Padhye of Maharashtra 13-11, 11-7, 11-5, Nikhil encounter quite a stiff challenge from Haryana’s Didar J.J. Rebello before going on to score a 16-14, 11-5, 12-10 win.
Meanwhile, in a boy’s under-13 first round encounter, Udit Sharma of Maharashtra rallied after dropping the first two games to prevail over state mate Aryan Panicker 12-14, 9-11, 13-11, 11-4, 11-3.
Results – Boy’s Under-15: Rayhan Walia (MH) bt Vikas Chand (Dl) 9-11, 8-11, 11-4, 11-0, 11-7; Ansh Punjabi (MH) bt Jash Chheda (MH) 11-9, 11-2, 11-4; Tarun Mammen (KA) bt Aman Chokshi (MH) 11-4, 11-4, 11-8; Inderjit Singh (CH) bt Dheer Patel (MP) 11-2, 11-1, 11-1; Advait Adik (MH) bt Harshvardhan Singh Shekhawat (MH) 11-4, 11-0, 11-2; Ansh Shetty (MH) bt Chandan Kahar (MH) 11-2, 11-3, 11-2; Ansh Bharganwar (MH) bt Adhip Shetty (MH) 11-8, 11-8, 11-5; R Kishore Arvind (TN) bt Rohan Padhye (MH) 13-11, 11-7, 11-5; Nikhil Jason (TN) bt Didar J J Rebello (HR) 16-14, 11-5, 12-10; Araash Mehta (MH) bt Ajay Deshmukh (MH) 11-2, 11-2, 11-2; Roshan Rajkumar (TN) bt Krish Shah (MH) 14-12, 6-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-5; Avinash Sahani (MH) bt Vedant Ambani (MH) 3-11, 11-5, 13-11, 11-4; Gowtham Karthick (TN) bt Siddhanth Lath (MH) 11-2, 11-2, 11-1; Deepak Mandal (MH) bt Niall Shah (MH) 11-3, 11-1, 11-8; Yash Dhairyawan (MH) bt Dhruv Mody (MH) 11-2, 11-2, 11-4; Suraj Chand (MH) bt Praveen Shekhawet (MH) 11-2, 11-2, 11-2; Yashwanth Raghav G (TN) bt Parth Vaidya 11-3, 11-0, 11-2; Gautam Nagpal (DL) bt Sanath Sha (WB) 11-4, 11-3, 11-4; Adityavardhan Singh Shekhawat (MH) bt Jayasai Yarram (AP)11-6, 11-6, 11-3; Jairaj Singh (RJ) bt Manit Nahar (MP) 11-8, 11-2, 11-1; Yohann Poncha (MH) bt Pawan Rawish (MH) 11-6, 8-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-7; Rahul Dharra (MH) bt Vishal Rajbhar (MH) 11-9, 9-11, 11-3, 12-10.
Boy’s Under-13: 1-Neel Joshi (MH) bt Mradul Garg (MP) 11-1, 11-1, 11-1; Anush Kar (MH) bt Vansh Agarwal (MH) 8-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-7; Aaryaman Jaising (MH) bt Yash Kothari (MH) 11-6, 11-2, 11-3; Lakshit Bohra (RJ) bt Mishaal Vaswani (MH) 11-2, 11-1, 11-3; Sunny Yadav (MH) bt Abhinav Gupta (KA) 11-4, 11-9, 11-2; Kabir Mehra (MH) bt Mihir Shah (MH) 11-1, 11-2, 11-2; Aakash Gupta (MH) bt Kavit Shah (MH) 11-2, 11-1, 11-2; Udit Sharma (MH) bt Aryan Panicker (MH) 12-14, 9-11, 13-11, 11-4, 11-3.