Mahesh, Yash sizzle to claim State men-s and U-19 boys- squash crowns respectively; Tanvi wins women-s title by beating Yoshna, who triumphed in U-19 girls section
Winner of the mens open Mahesh Mangaonkar (centre) with championship director Sumeet Rewari (left) and championship administrator Shrikant Seshadri at the prize distribution ceremony of the 44th Maharashtra State Senior Open squash tournament and the inau
Top seeds Mahesh Mangoankar and Yash Fadte were clinical in their performance as they claimed the men-s and under-19 boys titles respectively at the 44th Maharashtra State Senior Open squash tournament and the inaugural Western Slam Junior under-19 at the Bombay Gymkhana squash courts yesterday.
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Mangaonkar quelled early nerves in the men-s open final which saw him lose the first game 9-11 before he got into his groove to make short work of second seed Abhishek Pradhan, winning 9-11, 11-3, 11-5,11-3 to clinch the prestigious title.
Women-s open winner Tanvi Khanna
In the boy-s under-19 final, the unseeded Neel Joshi, who had a great build-up to the finals, taking down many higher-ranked opponents, put up a strong fight but went down to the more experienced Fadte. The Goa lad started in strong fashion, taking the first game 11-5. In the second game, Neel pushed Yash to the limit, before the more experienced Yash wrested back control to take the second and third games to secure the U-19 title with an 11-5, 12-10, 11-7 scoreline.
Yash Fadte with the U-19 trophy
Unseeded Yoshna Singh from Pune, who had a dream run in the tournament, had to fight hard and overcome two tie-breakers before she downed second seed Amira Singh 11-9, 13-11, 5-11, 12-10 and win the U-19 title. However, the long U-19 match saw Yoshna run out of steam and put paid to her dream of a dual-title when she faced second seed Tanvi Khanna in the women-s final. Tanvi was her consistent self and hardly broke a sweat as she defeated Yoshna 11-4, 11-6, 11-6 in under 30 minutes.
Yoshna Singh
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