Pradhan survives scare

Mumbai, Nov 9: Top seed Abhishek Pradhan survived a scare to enter the boys under-15 final in the 31st HSBC-Bombay Gymkhana Maharashtra State Open Squash Championship, co-sponsored by Westside and Lee, at Bombay Gymkhana today.

In the closest contest on semi-finals day, Mumbai's No 1 under-15 junior Pradhan overcame best friend Mahesh Mangaonkar 3-9, 10-8, 10-8, 10-8 in a 65-minute thriller.

As the juniors shot into the limelight, Pradhan rallied brilliantly from the loss of the opening game and a 2-8 deficit in the second to snatch it away from his arch rival in a tight quality encounter.

Shivangi Paranjpe of Bombay Gymkhana set herself up for a double after breezing into the women's and girls' under-19 finals. Shivangi set up a women's title clash with England's Mandy Kennedy after the latter overcame Shivangi's elder sister Madhura in the other semi-final.

But it will be all in the family when the siblings face each other in the girls' under-19 championship round.

Mumbai's Vikram Malhotra also was in line for a double when he entered the boys' under-19 and under-17 finals.

Chennai's Harinderpal Singh set up a Men's Open title clash with top seed Gaurav Nandrajog following contrasting semi-final wins.

Following are the results Men's Open (semi-finals): Gaurav Nandrajog (Chennai) bt Manish Chotrani (Mah) 9-4, 9-3, 9-2; Harinderpal Singh (Chennai) bt A.

Partibhan (Chennai) 4-9, 9-1, 9-6, 7-9, 9-5.

Women: Mandy Kennedy (Eng) bt Madhura Paranjpe (Mah) 9-1, 9-0, 9-7; Shivangi Paranjpe (Mah) bt Rhea Bhandare (Mah) 9-1, 9-3, 9-2.

Boys U-19: Sandeep Jangra (Mah) bt Cyrus Vakil (Mah) 9-0, 9-7, 9-5; Vikram Malhotra (Mah) bt Naishadh Lalwani (Mah) 9-1, 9-3, 9-5.

Boys U-17: Vikram Malhotra (Mah) bt Jay Dalal (Mah) 9-1, 9-1, 9-0; Cyril Kuhn (Chennai) bt Laxman Joshi (Jindal) 9-8, 3-9, 9-5, 9-1.

Boys U-15: Abhishek Pradhan (Mah) bt Mahesh Mangaonkar (Mah) 3-9, 10-8, 10-8, 10-8; Aadit Zaveri (Mah) bt Aakash Borwankar (Mah) 6-9, 9-3, 9-5, 9-0.

Boys U-13: Shashi Pandey (Jindal) bt Ishaan Advani (Mah) 4-9, 9-2, 9-5, 7-9, 9-2.

Boys U-11: Raghav Mehrotra (Mah) bt Kunj Rawani (Mah) 10-8, 9-3, 9-1; Yohan Pandole (Mah) bt Devchand Rai (Jindal) 8-10, 9-7, 9-4, 9-1.

Under-9: Rajat Agarwal (Mah) bt Yohann Surti (Mah) 9-5, 9-7, 9-2; Mohit Yadav (Mah) bt Sandeep Paswan (Jindal) 9-3, 9-3, 9-5.

Girls U-19: Madhura Paranjpe bt Shaheda Madraswala 9-3, 9-0, 9-5; Shivangi Paranjpe bt Ankita Sharma 9-2, 9-0, 9-0.

Girls U-17: Shaheda Madraswala (Mah) bt Anushka Patel (Mah) 9-6, 9-3, 9-6; Namrata Purohit (Mah) bt Chanda (Raj) 9-7, 9-3, 9-1.

Girls U-15: Ankita Sharma (Mah) bt Namrata Purohit (Mah) 9-3, 9-1, 9-0; Soumya Karki (Mah) bt Sachika Balvani (Mah) 9-2, 9-4, 9-2.

Girls U-13: Soumya Karki (Jindal) bt Shweta Yadav (Jindal) 9-0, 9-0, 9-2.

Over-45: Chandrakant Pawar bt Vaman Apte 4-9, 9-5, 8-10, 9-2, 9-4.

Professionals: Dalip Tripathi bt Rohit More (Mah) 9-7, 9-0, 2-9, 6-9, 9-5; Mahesh Verma (Mah) bt Gautam Das 4-9, 3-9, 9-6, 9-4, 10-8.

VENGEANCE ''We say, an eye for an eye and a soul for a soul. There will be no security in Ashkelon, no security in Tel Aviv or Haifa, until our people in Beit Hanoun are made secure,'' Awad said. Palestinian leaders have called yesterday's attack a massacre. Some Hamas lawmakers have threatened that its armed wing would resume suicide attacks against Israel.

The Israeli army said it was targeting rocket launchers using the Beit Hanoun area as a staging ground to fire makeshift missiles at the Jewish state.

After the incident, Israel's defence minister ordered a halt to artillery fire in Gaza pending the outcome of an inquiry that was to be completed by today.

Without directly referring to the inquiry, Olmert said the artillery shells had been fired in the wrong direction.

''The (intended) direction was entirely different, (towards) an orange grove where we spotted shooting seconds before. But I can't promise you that when we shoot here by some technical failure it won't go there.'' The Beit Hanoun killings rallied Palestinians after months of factional infighting between Fatah and Hamas, which is dedicated to Israel's destruction.

But Damascus-based Khaled Meshaal, the leader of Hamas, urged retaliation. Hamas declared a truce in March 2005 that expired at the year-end. It has not carried out suicide bombings in Israel since 2004.

While the European Union said it was ''appalled'' by the Gaza shelling, an initial response by the United States stopped short of reprimanding Israel. Olmert is due to meet President George W Bush in Washington on Monday.

The Beit Hanoun killings brought together the moderate Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, who have been at odds over a proposal to create a unity government that might help lift a Western aid blockade.

Abbas and Meshaal later spoke by telephone, in a further sign of greater cooperation between the rival movements, suggesting progress could soon be made on a unity government.

Reuters