Manish Chotrani finally broke a jinx. Time and again he
has lost in the finals of a tournament, but on Friday he defeated Akhil Behl
in four games to win The Leela Switcher Squash Masters. Chotrani prevailed
15-10, 15-4, 8-15 and 15-8 in exactly one hour.
The 26year old who plays at the Khar Gymkhana has often
lost to Akhil Behl, but this time around he managed to turn the tables.
Chotrani had gone down to Behl in a thriller at the State Open final played
at Bombay Gymkhana last month.
Behl was totally off –colour making numerous error. His
drop repeatedly found the tin and he was late to the ball from the back
court.
The Leela Switcher Squash Masters, a two day, eight
player knockout tournament, commences at The Leela from December 18. The
Leela, a five star deluxe hotel, and Switcher, a Swiss based knitwear
company are jointly sponsoring the tournament which carries a total prize
money of Rs.25,000 with the winners taking home a cheque of Rs.7,500 and the
runners-up Rs.5,000.
The matches will be played at the glass backed,
air-conditioned squash courts at the Health & Fitness Racquet Centre of The
Leela. The tournament will be played on a knock-out basis among the top
eight players, who are participating by invitation only. The eight players
who have qualified for the main draw, from a konck-out tournament between 16
players in the preliminary round are Akhil Behl, Manish Chotrani, Gaurav
Juneja, Jatin Mehta, Parth Doshi, Awish Jaiswal, Darius Surti and Paul
Ferreira. Promising Mumbai players like Abhijit Kukreja, Rohan Juneja and
Amit Pal Kohli, however failed to win a berth in the last eight round, going
down in the preliminary round.
Paul Ferreira made heavy weather of his quarter final
against Jatin Mehta in the Leela Switchers Squash Masters, organized by
Indian Squash Professionals, in the air-conditioned glass back court at The
Leela on Thursday. Two games up, the third seeded Ferreira perhaps got a bit
complacent. He narrowly lost the third and then the fourth as well but
convincingly asserted himself in the decider.
The three other fancied players in the eight-player
invitation event carrying a total prize money of Rs.25,000, were through
without much of a sweat. In the semi-finals, Paul Ferreira meets Manish
Chotrani while Akhil Behl plays Gaurav Juneja. The quarter finalists got
Rs.1500 each while the semi finalists have assured themselves of Rs.3000
each.
Parth Doshi caused a surprise when he
knocked out
Rohan Juneja in a Preliminary round match of The Leela-Switcher Squash
Masters. Parth won 15-12, 15-9, 12-15, 13-15, 15-10.
Rohan’s win Gaurav fared better when he downed Niraj
Shirgaokar in four games. The scores were 15-11, 9-15, 15-12, 15-13.
Amitpal Kohli took seasoned Awish Jaiswal to five games. Jaiswal prevailed
10-15, 15-10, 11-15, 15-9, 15-12. Junior Abhijit Kukreja gave Jatin Mehta a
fright. Mehta needed five games to win 15-12, 0-15, 15-11,13-15, 15-13.
The main draw of the tournament which features eight
players will be played on Thursday and Friday. The eight who have qualified
from the knockout tournament are Akhil Behl, Manish Chotrani, Gaurav Juneja,
Jatin Mehta, Parth Doshi, Awish Jaiswal, Darius Surti and Paul Ferreira.
Switcher, a Swiss based knitwear company, are promoting
the game of squash for the first time. The total prize-money for the
tournament is Rs.25,000.
Manish Chotrani won the first major title of the year
defeating Akhil Behl The Leela-Switcher Squash Masters finals at The Leela
court, Sahar, today.
In the third set, Behl came back strongly and finished
the set with losing eight points. But in the fourth set, Chotrani didn’t
game Behl a chance to get advantage and finished the match.
Paul Ferreira made heavy weather of his quarter-final
against Jatin Mehta in the The Leela-Switcher Squash Masters organized by
Indian Squash Professionals at the air-conditioned glass back court at The
Leela on Thursday.
Two games up, The third seeded
Ferreira perhaps got
a bit complacent. He narrowly lost the third and then fourth as well, but
convincingly asserted himself in the decider. Ferreira won 15-10, 15-13,
13-15, 16-17, 15-7.
Three other fancied players in the eight-players in the
eight-player invitation event carrying a total of Rs. 25,000 in prize money
were through without much on sweat.
In the semi-finals, Paul
Ferreira meets Manish Chotrani
while Akhil Behl plays Gaurav Juneja. The quarter-finalists got Rs.1,500
each while the semi-finalists assured themselves of Rs.3,000.
