Malhotra, Manganokar make merry in Little Masters squash a tourney

Mumbai, Sept 22 (UNI) City lads Vikram Malhotra and Mahesh Manganokar gave another testimony to their squash potential when they played multiple matches with consummate ease and entered the semi-finals of two age categories each in the SKF India Ltd sponsored, Little Masters All India Junior Squash Tournament, organised by the Willingdon Sports Club, at their courts, here today.

The 16-year-old Malhotra from H R College, seeded second in the boys under-19, defeated Tamil Nadu's Cyril Kuhn 2-9, 10-8, 9-3, 9-3 to advance to the round of four, where he will meet traditional rival Cyrus Vakil of Mumbai, who upset fourth seed Laxman Joshi of Jindal Academy 9-2, 9-6, 9-5. In the other semi-final, Naishad Lalwani will meet top seed Sandeep Jangra.

Top seed Mahlotra also made the under-17 semifinal with a 9-2, 9-0, 9-0 drubbing of Akhilesh Nayak and he will meet T N's Karan Malik, who beat Aditya Gupta 9-0, 9-3, 9-2.

Mahesh Mangaonkar, the 7th standard student of Don Bosco, also played exceptional squash, winning three matches, all quite convincingly. There were small hiccups in the under-13 quarter-final against Indore's Dhananjay Singh, when he was down 5-8, but some excellent drop sots won Mangaonkar the game 10-8 and the other two 9-3, 9-2.

In girls action, TN's Harita Omprakash made the finals of the u-19 and u-15 groups. In the u-19 semi final she beat Indore's Swati Muchhal 9-0, 9-0, 9-1 to set up a title clash with Maharashtra's top seed Shivangi Paranjpe, who ended the run of Jindal Squash Academy's Saumya Karki 9-2, 9-3, 9-7.

Following are the results: Boys u-19 (quarter-finals): 1-Sandeep Jangra bt Kuwarpal Singh 9-3, 9-2, 9-0; Cyrus Vakil bt 4-Laxman Joshi (Jindal Squash Academy) 9-2, 9-6, 9-5; 2-Vikram Malhotra bt Cyril Kuhn (TN) 2-9, 10-8, 9-3, 9-3; Naishad Lalwani bt Fateh Singh (Indore) 9-2, 9-3, 9-1.

Boys u-17 (quarter finals): 1-Vikram Malhotra bt Akhilesh Nayak 9-2, 9-0, 9-0; 2-Laxman Joshi (Jindal Squash Academy) bt Navin Jangra (Jindal Squash Academy) 9-2, 10-9, 9-0; 3-Cyril Kuhn (TN) bt Abhinav Sinha 9-2, 9-5, 9-4; Karan Malik (TN) bt Aditya Gupta 9-0, 9-3, 9-2.

Boys u-15 (quarter-finals): 1-Karan Malik (TN) bt Dhananjay Singh (Indore) 9-1, 9-0, 9-2; 3-Mahesh Mangaonkar bt 4-Caran Arora 9-4, 9-7, 9-7; 2-Aadit Zaveri bt Rohan Vora 9-4, 9-4, 9-5; Aakash Borwankar bt Pranay Merchant 8-9, 9-4, 9-0, 5-9, 9-1.

Boys u-13 (quarter finals): 1-Mahesh Mangaonkar bt Dhananjay Singh (Indore) 10-8, 9-3, 9-2; Ishaan Advani bt Vrishab Kotian 9-1, 7-9, 9-4, 9-2; Caran Arora bt Hemant Manjrekar 9-0, 9-0, 9-0; Vardan Ladiwala bt Yash Bhansali 9-3, 9-2, 9-5.

Boys u-11 (semi finals): Arjun Kochhar bt Yaduveer Singh (Indore) 9-0, 9-0, 9-0; 2-Raghav Mehrotra bt 3-Kunj Rawani 9-4, 8-10, 9-4, 9-2.

Boys u-11 (quarter-finals): 2-Raghav Mehrotra bt Devchand Rai 9-3, 9-0, 9-5; 3-Kunj Rawani bt Ravindra Dhoria 9-2, 9-1, 9-0; Yaduveer Singh (Indore) bt Yohan Pandole 9-4, 9-2, 6-9, 9-5; Arjun Kochhar bt Rajat Agarwal 9-0, 9-0, 9-0.

Boys and Girls u-9 (semi finals): Rajat Agarwal bt Trilok Sadarangani 9-1, 9-4, 9-3; Sandeep Paswan bt Yohan Surti 9-6, 9-3, 9-4.

Girls u-19 (semi finals): 1-Shivangi Paranjpe bt Saumya Karki (Jindal Squash Academy) 9-2, 9-3, 9-7; 2-Harita Omprakash (TN) bt Swati Muchhal (Indore) 9-0, 9-0, 9-1.

Girls u-15 (semi-finals): 1-Harita Omprakash (TN) bt 4-Saumya Karki 9-2, 9-4, 9-10, 9-3; Dheeya Somaya (Indore) bt Swarnalatha (TN) 9-4, 9-2, 9-5.

UNI GS PM DH RAI1946