C.S.Pawar the winner of 1st Pro Masters  receiving the trophy from Ms.Anita Sood (National Swimming Champion) along with Mahendra Agarwal (Founder Director, ISP) & Prashant Agarwal (sponsor)

All Press Articles of tournament :  

Pawar is Champ
Times of India : 21/1/1993

It was a day Chandrakant Pawar will cherish all his life. Egged on by the young and old members of the Otters Club Pawar defeated Gopi Mohite, of Bombay Gymkhana, 15-12, 15-5, 17-15 to become the champion of the inaugural Pro Masters squash tournament, sponsored by Monarch Builder’s and Mudra Fabrics.

Pawar the Leela Pro won Rs.6,000 in this Rs.25,000 prize money tournament held exclusively for professionals. Mojite won Rs.4,000 as well as the hearts of the Otters Club fans, That towards the end of the match the club members were spurring Mohite on to do his best was proof of the respect Mohite commanded.

Unfortunately, Mohite employed the right tactics only towards the end of the third game when he was moving Pawar all over the court with cross courts and length shots. That is how he saved five match points. Mohite did not enjoy the luck of the underdog, being penalized for a “stroke” then down 11-13. It took Pawar to match point. Mohite showed resilience to level up. But as Pawar kept the ball to the back court Mohite was unable to bring into play his winning side wall shots. He missed a couple of overheads and that it .

In the first two games, Mohite engaged Pawar in any number of rallies. It was unfortunate, that Mohite could not stretch Pawar to the limit.

Prakash Yelve of Willingdon Sports Club, won the prize for the most promising player.

Anita Sood, the ace swimmer was the chief guest. 

Yelve puts out Ramesh More
Times of India :19/1/1993

Prakash Yelve of Willingdon Sports Club caused a big upset in the Monarch and Mudra sponsored First Pro Masters squash tournament when he knocked out the fourth seed, Ramesh More of Bombay Gymkhana in five games at the Otters Club courts this evening.

Yelve was down 1-2 but never gave up picking up every return much to the annoyance of his rival who towards the end, ran out of stamina. Even then, More was leading 5-1 in the deciding fifth game but could do little as Yelve reeled off eight points in a row to go 11-6 ahead and never look back.

Tournament for squash Pros
Times of India : 5/1/1993 

A city businessman Mahendra Agarwal, has a unique new year comment, to help the squash professionals.

The professionals or makers as they are called perform various duties at the clubs, including coaching. Agarwal felt that they were never suitably rewarded. Hence his decision to hold a tournament exclusively for them.

With the co-operation of Otters Club, the Squash Masters tournament will be held in the second week of January. Some 20 professionals including the reigning national champion Chandrakant Pawar who coaches at the Leela will be taking part. The top eight will play a round robin and vie for the top prize of Rs.6,000 out of a total of Rs.25000. 

Mohite Beats Anant More
Times of India : 20/1/1993 

Showing tremendous control as well as penchant for the boast shot, Gopi Mohite, of Bombay Gymkhana, put it across the second seed Anant More, of the Criket Club of India, to enter the final of the Rs.25,000 Monarch and Mudra-sponsored first Squash Pro Master tournament at the Otters Club courts this evening. Mohite, the third seed won 15-11, 15-8, 15-10 and takes on the hot favourite Chandrakant Pawar, of the Leela, in the final.

Egged on by his home crowd, Pawar who began service in the billiards department of the Otters Club had several of the youngster he has knocked up with cheering him on his semi-final against Prakash Yelve, of Willingdon Sports Club. Yelve had served notice of his threat by ousting fourth-seeded Ramesh More yesterday. Today, he showed great retrieving ability and matched Pawar for speed. But Pawar’s over all control and his reading of his opponents game told in the end. There was good stroke play from both players and Pawar’s greater control over the drop shots helped him cut off the several rallies that ensued. 

Squash players fail to turn up
Times of India : 18/1/1993

The Pro Masters squash tournament was once again hit due to the unavailability of the players. There has only been a single day’s play possible since the riots. Today though the courts at the Otters Club were lying vacant matches could be not held.

Santosh More, the Otters professional, said matches would be held tomorrow and in all probability the final would be held on Wednesday.

One does not quite understand why the tournament was not cancelled or postponed to the first week of February. Squash Rackets Association of Maharashtra (SRAM) too is at fault as they did not think it wise to have a proper organizer. This is the first time the Professionals are holding the tournament and the SRAM should have chipped in to help them out. 

Mohite upsets Anant More
Free Press Journal : 20/1/1993 

THIRD SEEDED Gopi Mohite of Bombay Gymkhana scored an upset win over second seed Anant More of CCI in a semi-final encounter of the Monarch and Mudra sponsored first Pro Masters Squash Tournament at the Otters Club, Bandra on Tuesday.

In a evenly fought match, Mohite putting up a determined approach prevailed 15-11, 15-8, 15-10 to advance into the final where he will clash with top seed Chandrakant Pawar of the Leela.

The 38 Year Pawar the National champion got the better of Prakesh Yelve (Willingdon Sports Club) in a keenly contested second semi-final. Yelve who subdued forth seeded Ramesh More (Bombay Gymkhana) in the quarter Finals on Monday gave another fine display and made his opponent fight for ever point. However, Yelve unable to match the skills of Pawar went down 7-15, 10-15, 3-15. The winner of Wednesday’s final stand to pocket the first prize of Rs.6,000.

Otters to host first pro masters squash
Mid-Day : 18/1/1993 

WHILE playing squash at the Leela Kempinski courts, Mahendra Agarwal of Monarch Builders and Prashant Agarwal of Mudra Fabrics came in contact with professional Chandrakant Pawar, who besides practicing with the guests also coaches them. They felt that the game to which Pawar has rendered yeoman service at the squash courts all over the city, needed a boost and the idea to – a prize-money tournament exclusively for professionals was born.

The first Squash Pro Masters will be held at the Otters Club from January 11 to 14. It will carry Rs.25,000 as prize money with the winner richer by Rs.4,000. The losing semi-finalist will get Rs.2,500 and the losing quarter finalists Rs.1,500. There will also be prizes for  promising players of the qualifying rounds.

Twenty players will take part in the qualifying rounds and four will qualify for the tournament proper in which there will be a total of eight players.

The leading professionals from the city who will be participating are the reigning National Pro champion, Chandrakant Pawar, who has won the title for the last six years in a row. He also won the state title thrice and won the Dubai Open in 1988; Anant More of Bombay Gymkhana, who has won the national once and Gopi Mohite, also of Bombay Gymkhana, a national and Western India champion. 

Pawar favourite for Pro Masters
Times of India : 11/1/1993 

The city’s squash  professionals will get a tremendous boost when the tournament exclusively held for them, the Monarch and Mudra Fabrics-sponsored Rs.25,000 First Squash Pro. Masters, commences at the Otters Club Bandra tomorrow morning.

Sponsors Mahendra and Prashant Agarwal came up with this idea and the ones to benefit from it are going to be Chandrakant Pawar  the Leela Pro  who won his sixth national professionals title at Madras early this month and is the top seed, the More brothers, Anant and  Ramesh, who work at CCI and Bombay Gymkhana, and Gopi Mohite, who is the professional at Bombay Gymkhana. These four are seeded directly into the last eight. The other four places will be taken by the semi-finalists of the qualifying round which has attracted twenty entries.

The winner takes home Rs.6,000, the runner up Rs.4,000, the losing semi-finalists Rs.2500 and the quarter finalists Rs. 1,500 each. There are prizes for the promising players of the qualifying rounds. 

Pawar tops in Pro squash
Afternoon : 22/1/1993 

It was a fitting finale to the first Squash Pro Masters Tournament, sponsored by Monarch Builders and Mudra Fabric when Chandrakant Pawar, the leading professional, won the title on his home Otters club courts on Wednesday evening.

In the final, his opponent Gopi Mohite was found wanting in tactical acumen which Pawar had in plenty. That was the difference as Pawar won 15-123, 15-5, 17-15.

The final was full of strokeplay which made the young and old members of the Otters Club sigh with pleasure. Both players played every stroke in the book except overheads into the nick. Pawar did not experiment too much and kept the ball in play. Mohite was prone to using the board for too often Pawar realized this and kept anticipating this shot and won comfortably first two games.

By the time Mohite realized his wrong tactics, he had a big leeway to make a 7-13 lead. He came up with tremendous resilience to level at 14 all, but did not enjoy the breaks. Pawar played with utmost caution and gained the biggest pay check in this country of Rs.6,000. He had won a higher amount when winning the Dubai Open, some years ago, but this triumph he will remember a long time for it came in front of his home crowd, with players who he had practiced with young and old watching and enjoying it all. Prakash Yelve was adjudged the most promising player of the tournament which was a huge success with over 20 players taking part. Now the next idea of the sponsors will be to have a team event for clubs and hotels. 

Gajne extends Sakarkar in Pro Masters
Afternoon : 17/1/1993 

Chandrakant Sakarkar of Willingdon S.C. was taken over four games four games by Nandkumar Gajne of  Khar Gymkhana in the first round of the Monarch and Mudra Pro Masters squash tournament which began at the Otters Club yesterday. Sakarkar won 15-11, 15-11, 12-15, 15-3.

 1st Tournament Organised by ISP