04 November,2022 08:12 AM IST | Mumbai | Gordon D’Costa
The different age-group winners of the MSSA inter-school squash tournament at Bombay Gymkhana yesterday. Pic/Ashish Raje
Priyaan Thakker, 15, of DY Patil International School (Worli) and Karina Phipps, 14, of Podar International School IB (Santacruz) scored contrasting victories to lift the boys' and girls' U-16 crowns respectively in the MSSA inter-school squash tournament on Friday.
Top seed Priyaan demonstrated splendid fighting qualities to overcome a gritty No.2 seed Vedant Chheda of St Mary's ICSE (Mazgaon) 7-11, 8-11, 11-2, 11-2, 11-0.
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Vedant played aggressively to match Priyaan power play and did well to take the opening two games before a composed Priyaan came roaring back to win the next three and emerge champion.
"I played badly initially and lost both the games. But my dad, who was watching from the gallery, urged me to stay calm and that gave me the boost to lift my game and turn things around," Priyaan told mid-day.
On the adjacent court, Karina was clinical in her approach as she stunned top seed Diva Shah of DY Patil International School 11-5, 11-8, 11-3 to clinch her second title in a week. She had won the CSA Open squash tournament at Chandigarh four days ago.
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"I have played against Diva a couple of times before and recently even beat her in the Sub-junior Nationals at Bombay Gymkhana, so I did my homework before coming into this tournament. I planned my strategies and executed them perfectly on the court," a smiling Karina said.
Girls U-13: Manya Sanghvi bt Amaira Mehta 12-10, 7-11, 11-8, 11-6.
Boys U-13: Vivaan Sagar bt Shreyansh Jha 9-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-5.
Boys U-11: Shourya Rakshit bt Krishiv Mittal 11-4,11-2,11-2
Girls u-11: Aashi Shah bt Shanaya Roy 11-13, 11-1, 11-4, 11-6.
Girls u-9: Riyaa Hardik Dalal bt Ariana Almoula 11-2, 11-3.
Boys u-9: Tilakvir Kapoor bt Nirmaan Chamaria 11-4, 11-3.
