PROSQUASH
Vol 9
No. 3 Issue No.35 July 2005
Directors : Mahendra Agarwal / Narendra Gour (I.R.S.) / Navneet Soni (I.R.S.) / Shiv Kumar Dhanuka Honorary Members : Bharat Bhushan (I.R.S.) / Saifee Jani / Rakesh Lakhanpal / Ashish Gupta / Vicky Kalludi / Sanjay Goyal / Ashok Nagpal Patrons: Vivek Nair (VC & M.D.The Leela) / Sajjan Jindal (Chairman & M.D. Jisco) / Eric Dastur (Chairman, K.M. Dastur Reinsurance Brokers Pvt. Ltd.) Advisors : Pradeep K. Vijayakar/ Shiv Malhotra / Swikriti Sharma P. R. O : Noreena / Global Ambassador / Anisha Sawhney Technical Director : Amitoj Inder Singh Chief Co-ordinator : Riaz Mohammed
Heralding a new Squash Era
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It was all glitz,
glamour and glitterati at the ‘Victory’ ceremony of the Herald
Maritime Services Squash Open 2005, India's premier squash event sponsored
by the Poonawalla Stud Farm, co-sponsored by Chemistry fashion apparel at
the Grand Banquet hall of hotel Taj Land's End. The grandeur of the
celebrations complemented the magnitude and quality of squash witnessed at
the championships. This was the best squash the city had seen since the
World Championships held in the late 90's. Squash fans came away from the tournament held at Otters club, convinced that they had seen a world champ or two of the future. Ramy Ashour was the current world junior champion. He feasts on Pakistanis, having beaten six of them in the world juniors in Islamabad. He beat three here - Khalid Atlas, Aamir Atlas Khan and Farhan Mehboob on his way to the title. His body language was great. In the final, he knew his opponent Farhan was tiring, and would serve quickly giving him little time to catch his breath. He used his splendid court coverage to the full. From picking a ball off the back wall he would spring to the front wall in a flash to pick up a drop. He mixed up his shots, plus he killed the ball hard and often found the Nick. He had the stamina of a horse. With such talent at his disposal there was little doubt about his superiority. Ramy earned a whopping winner's cheque of Rs 2,17,500. Farhan won Rs 1,08,750 for his efforts. |
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The only one who dictated terms to him was Aamir Atlas. Here is another player who can retrieve the ball till the cows come home. He had won a game against Ramy. But Ramy's early interceptions and his reach made the difference from game three onwards. But Squash great Jansher Khan, whose presence was an incentive for the players to surpass their limits, said both Aamir and Ramy could be world champs if they worked hard. This work hard thing is a little tough to understand for us Indians who can only dream of our kids coming into the top ten of world squash. But working hard means breaking the pain barrier. Something legends like Jahangir and Jansher did on a daily basis.
Aamir and Ramy look like they can break this barrier. It was tough luck for our Indian champ Ritwik. Capt Jamshed Appoo had invited players ranked below him so that he might win the booty and other Indians might be encouraged to emulate him. But Ritwik was beaten by Colombian Bernardo Samper, the Trinity College No 1 with a rosy future. It was great to see Jansher, at the prizes dinner at Taj Land's End, talking to the mother of under-19 champ Sandeep Jangra and telling her that he would be happy to help Sandeep reach the top. Sandeep, trained at the Jindal Squash Academy, beat Vikram Malhotra for the biggest paycheck any junior in the world would have got-Rs One lakh! But the biggest gain is that thanks to Jansher, kids like Sandeep, Vikram and Gaurav Nandrajog will go to Pakistan and get a feel of how the eternal champs of squash train.
Aditya Jagtap beat second seed Abhinav Sinha from (UP) 11-4, 11-4, 11-5 for the under-15 crown. Mumbai veterans took a back seat as Delhi's Dr. Bharat Inder Singh knocked out the top two seeds on his way to the title. At 53 years of age, he displayed