The Hindu : Sport : It’s Tamil Nadu’s day all the way

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 26, 2007
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It’s Tamil Nadu’s day all the way

S.R. Suryanarayan

CHENNAI: It is Tamil Nadu all the way in the inter-State and doubles events in the National squash championship. The women have already clinched the title and it will be the turn of the men to complete the sweep on Thursday, the final day.

At the end of the semifinal phase on Wednesday, in the men’s section one thing became clear: there are no challengers for Tamil Nadu. Both in the team event and in the doubles, the finalists are from Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu ‘A’ will play the ‘B’ team, virtually the junior squad for the team title while the state’s top two seeds, Saurav Ghosal / Harinder Pal Singh and Naresh Kumar / Parth Sharma will fight for the honours in the doubles championship.

Easy for the women

In the women’s section, in the three-team round robin, the Tamil Nadu ‘A’ team of Anwesha Reddy, Anaka and Aparajitha had it easy over the second rung ‘B’ side for its second win, enough to ensure the title. The ‘B’ side will now play U.P. to decide the second place.

Of all the results what was most convincing was Tamil Nadu ‘B’s eclipsing of the strong Delhi team. The ‘B’ side comprised of Ravi Dixit, A. Parthiban and Ramit Tandon. The 2-1 win was as much due to Ravi’s determined show as Ramit’s gritty performance in the deciding match after Parthiban went down to higher rated Gaurav Nandrajog.

Short work

The ‘A’ team spearheaded by Saurav Ghosal made short work of last year’s runner-up Services. Saurav, playing his first match, was tested initially by the fighting Vikas Jangra but the recently crowned National champion knew his way out to complete the win in style.

The total Tamil Nadu affair notwithstanding, it will be an absorbing final day on Thursday, for on view will be the cream of the squash talent in the country, all of them trainees of the ICL academy.

The results: Doubles championship: semifinals: Saurav Ghosal and Harinder Pal Singh (TN) bt Vikram Malhotra and Niraj Shirgaokar (Mah) 11-6, 11-7, 5-11, 11-10 (3-1); Naresh Kumar and Parth Sharma (TN) bt Vikas Jangra and Shakti Singh ( Services) 11-6, 11-9, 11-8.

Inter-State competition: Men: semifinals: Tamil Nadu ‘B’ bt Delhi ‘A’ 2-1 (Ravi Dixit bt Amjad Khan 2-9, 9-5, 9-0, 9-1; Ayyapan Parthiban lost to Gaurav Nandrajog 9-3, 6-9, 2-9, 5-9; Ramit Tandon bt Sohail Kapur 9-6, 4-9, 9-4, 9-5); Tamil Nadu ‘A’ bt Services 3-0 (Harinder Pal Singh bt Shakti Singh 9-2, 2-9, 9-5, 9-6; Saurav Ghosal bt Vikas Jangra 10-9, 9-4, 9-2; Parth Sharma bt A. Choudhary 9-2, 9-5, 9-1).

Women: round robin league: Tamil Nadu ‘A’ bt Tamil Nadu ‘B’ 3-0 (A. Anaka bt Sruthi Dugar 9-0, 9-0, 9-1; V. Anwesha Reddy bt Komal Sharma 9-0, 9-0, 9-1; B. Aparajitha bt Akshara 9-1, 9-5, 9-0).

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