26 February,2010 08:39 AM IST | | A Correspondent
Former National champion Manish Chotrani proved he still has it in him to battle it out with the best when he ran Mahesh Mangaonkar close before going down in four games in the final of the Men's Top 8 of the Rs 52,000 prize money The Club Squash Classic 2010, organised by ISP at the The Club yesterday.
Super fit
Chotrani, who is extremely fit for his age of 40 plus, had a few lessons to teach the British Open Junior champion as he won the first game 11-9, and fought tooth and nail in the second before losing it 13-15. The strain of playing the semi-finals just an hour earlier and two tight games seemed to be telling on Chotrani as he lost the third 7-11, but he found his second wind in the fourth and used his wide repertoire of strokes as he matched the talentedu00a0 Mangaonkar stroke for stroke before losing the tantalizingly close match 10-12.
The boys under-15 final encounter was also a thriller. Madhav Dhingra of Otters Club and Akhilesh Yadav of Jindal Squash Academy fought hard before Dhingra won 11-6, 5-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-4.
The girls under-15 final was a cakewalk for Jindal Academy's Urvashi Joshi, who is also the current National champion, and she romped to a 11-8, 11-4, 11-2 victory.
