Balamurugan makes Squash History

Times of India 29th April, 2002.

Indian pros have been doing well of late, taking inspiration from the  likes of Shyamlal Verma, Francis and lately, Chandrakant Pawar who helped from the Indian Squash Professionals. It has given the pros a higher stature than before with exclusive tournaments for them as well as clinics under reputed coaches.

Bala beat Mahesh Verma at the last Nationals in Chennai. He first won the Chennai Pro tournament in 1997 followed by wins at Calcutta in 1998, Mumbai the next year and the Maharashtra State Open in 2000.

Bala first pro to bepicked to play for India

By Pradeep Vijayakar

MUMBAI: Chennai's Balamurugan, is the first professional to play for Indian in an international tournament. Pros have only recently been allowed to take part in the Open Nationals and called for the trials.

Bala, 23, shocked Dhiraj Singh, a member of last year's team, 3-0 in the trials in Chennai and followed it up beating Navneet Narain, another top five-ranker, 3-1. He also took Bikram Uberoi to five sets. The Asians are to be played in Kuala Lumpur next month.

Bala has been a professional at the India Cements Academy in Chennai. Indian team coach Cyrus Poncha, speaking to TOI from Chennai on eve of the team's departure, said:``Bala `killed' Dhiraj, so brilliantly did he play.'' The coach was sure Bala would play in the event. ``We will have to rotate the players.''

Indian pros have been doing well of late, taking inspiration from the likes of Yusuf Khan, Munnuswamy, Umer Khan, Shyamlal Verma, Francis and latterly, Chandrakant Pawar. The, along with Mahendra Agarwal, helped form the Indian Squash Professionals which has given the pros a higher stature than before with exclusive tournaments for them as well as clinics under reputed coaches like Abdul Shaikh of Canada..

Bala is the top pro of the country, beating Mahesh Verma at the last Nationals at Chennai. He first won the Chennai professional tournament in 1997 followed by wins at Calcutta in 1998, Mumbai the next year and the Maharashtra State Open in 2000. He plays good strokes and packs a lot of power.

Coach Poncha was upbeat about the team. Mumbai lad Bikram Uberoi has been picked for the first time in the men's team. Similarly, squash sensation Joshna Chinappa, at the 14 the youngest national champ ever, is picked for the women's team for the first time. Also making the team for the first time is Mumbai lass Priyanka Yadav, who upset Sohini Kumari at the trials. Deepali Anvekar and Supriya Balsekar won't be playing this time but Mekhala Subedar and Vaidehi Reddy will be there. Malaysia. boasting of world's top ten players, and Pakistan are the top two in Asia. After that it's Even Stevens. India finished fourth among men and fifth among women last year.

Saurav Ghosal wins German Open Junior Under-17 

Saurav Ghosal won the German Junior Open under 17 boys event in Stutgart yesterday beating Chris Simpson of England 3-0. On his way to the finals he beat the no.3 seed Kristen Johnson of UK 3-2, Mirco ´Marselas (Swiss) 3-0, Tobias Bohm of Germany 3-1 and Sebastian Winnink (Holland) 3-0.

Uberoi had earlier won back-to-back titles (Mahrashtra Stae and Western India) in Mumbai. But that was shorn of competition as Ritwik and Manish did not participate in the events.

The standard in the men's game has shown a sharp decline as there is not much talent apart from Ritwik, Manish and Bikram.

The women's game was dominated by Joshna Chinappa and Deolali's Mekhla Subedar. Joshna, who had won the girls under-19 and Nationals in the same year in 2000, performed a repeat act this year. However, she almost came a cropper in a nerve racking National final to Mekhala. The Deolali lass let slip an 8-3 lead, squandering as many as five matchballs. Joshna came back strongly and won the decider without dropping a point.

Mekhla had earlier got the better of Joshna at the Western India and Maharashtra State Opens. She had worked on a gameplan and practised strenuously for a month in Chennai before the Mumbai events.

There were quite a few juniors who hogged the limelight in 2001. But there were two exeptional performances in the Junior Nationals in Chennai. Mumbai's Siddharth Suchede, who had to get special leave from his school in Scotland, played out of his skin to beat the likes of Abhimanyu Jain, Supreet Singh and Sahil Vora enroute to the title. Suchde has improved by leaps and bounds in Scotland and is sure to make a mark in the men's game in future.

Little Alisha Mashruwala has been racking up titles by the dozen on her forays in the Far East and it was no surprise that she won the under-17 crown at the Junior Nationals in Chennai. She is definitely a class apart.

The Indian girls team performed exceptionally well in the World Junior Championhips in Penang, Malaysia in August. In the team event, the Indians finished far above expectations when they got to the quarterfinals. The well balanced side had two girls from Chennai, Joshna Chinappa and Vaidehi Reddy and two from Mumbai, Rachita Vora and Supriya Balsekar. In the individuals, Joshna was a little below par but Vaidehi played superbly to enter the fourth round.

There was a belated honour for one of Indian squash's greatest players: Anil Nayar, the Cricket Club of India named their courts after him. Mumbai missed out on the biggest squash event in the world due to the September 11 attacks in the U.S. The world open was postponed thanks to these sad events.

Harinder started nervously, making several unforced errors, despite an early lead at 3-0. This gave Karim the chance he was looking for, and he took the first game 9-5. In the second, Harinder regrouped, focused on keeping the ball in play, and put Karim under immense pressure, making him scamper to every corner. Karim wilted, and Harinder won 9-4.