THE LEELA-SWITCHER-MONARCH TWIN SQUASH HANDICAP TEAM
EVENT & DOUBLES SQUASH CHAMPIONSHIP
At Hotel The Leela: 17-7-2000 (played every sunday)
At the prize
distribution ceremony held at Hotel The
Leela, Mumbai : Shishir Shirgaokar &
Niraj Shirgaokar (Winners of the Doubles Handicap Squash Event)
receiving the trophy from Mr. Vijay Sethi (Resident Manager, The Leela)
TEAM EVENTS FINALS:
The
Club bt Otters `A’ 2-0:
Amitpal Kohli bt Rohan Juneja 15-13, 15-11
Saket Wali bt Vishal Kapoor 14-15, 15-12, 15-14
3rd/4th
playoff: Andheri
Recreation Club bt Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana 2-1:
Bipin Batra bt Pradeep Heble 15-9, 15-13
Rohan Gracious lost to Deepali Anvekar 14-15, 12-15
Rajesh Sonawane lost to Vijay Sonawane 13-15, 9-15
SEMI FINALS: Otters
`A’ bt Andheri Recreation Club 2-1 Vijay M. Sonawane bt Vijay H.
Sonawane 15-10, 13-15, 15-10
Vishal Kapoor lost to Dayanand Shetty 11-5, 15-10, 13-15
Rohan Juneja bt Pradeep Heble 15-14, 10-15, 15-14
The
Club bt WILLINGDON CATHOLIC GYMKHANA `A’ 2-0 Carl Bokdawala bt
Bipin Batra 17-14, 13-15, 15-13,
Saket Wali bt Rohan Gracious 15-13, 13-15, 15-14). QUARTER FINALS: WCG `A’ bt The Leela 2-1 Bipin Batra bt Rahil Shah 15-13, 15-8;
Rajesh Sonawane lost to Priyanka Yadav 7-15, 12-15;
Rohan Gracious bt Abhijit Kukreja 15-5, 16-17, 15-13.
The Club `A’ bt Otters `F’ 2-1 Amitpal Kohli bt Nikhil Seth 15-14, 6-15, 17-15;
Yakub Shaikh lost to Aditya Manjrekar 12-15, 15-17;
Saket Wali bt S Lokhandwala 15-14, 15-14.
Andheri Recreation Club bt Otters `B’ 2-0 Deepali Anwekar bt Rishabh Singhvi 15-10, 15-13;
Dayanand Shetty bt Akhil Behl 14-17, 15-5, 15-9.
Otters `A’ bt Juhu Centaur `A’ 2-1 Gaurav Juneja bt Hillary Fernandes 14-15, 15-11, 15-11;
Vijay Sonawane lost to Bunty 15-13, 11-15, 11-15;
Vishal Kapoor bt Mukesh Oberoi 11-15, 15-8, 15-12.
Otters `A’ bt Jindal `A’ 2-1 Vijay Sonawane lost to Vijay
Jangra 15-10, 11-15, 12-15
Rohan Juneja bt Arvind Singh 15-10, 11-15, 15-13
Gaurav Juneja bt Deepak Yadav 15-13, 13-15, 15-10
All
Press Articles of the Tournament
Shirgaokars,
The Club clinch Leela titles (Article in The
Daily : 19 / 7 / 2000)
The father and son combination of S.
Shirgaokar and Niraj Shirgaokar claimed the doubles crown, while The Club,
Andheri bagged the team title as the Leela-Monarch Twin handicap
Team & Doubles Squash Championship concluded at The Leela Hotel on
Sunday.
An experienced doubles pair, the
Shirgaokars were forced to battle hard against minnows Xavier Marquis and
Bunty Singh before clinching an exciting final at 13-15, 15-13, 15-14 as
Bunty Singh hit the tin at match ball.
The Club overcame formidable
Otters
‘A’ 2-0 to win the team title after Saket Wali overcame a stiff
challenge from Otters’ Vishal Kapoor in a thrilling second tie, which
went all the way to the wire.
Amitpal Kohli gave The Club the lead
by winning the opening tie with a 15-13, 15-11 win over Rohan Juneja,
which left Vishal Kapoor with the onus of bringing Otters back into the
match.
Playing with a handicap of 8, Kapoor,
the winner of the under-19 title in the Singapore Open recently, lost the
opening game in dramatic fashion at 14-15 but remained in the fray after
winning the second 15-12 against Wali.But he squandered a winning opportunity at match ball after gaining
a substantial 14-7 lead in the decider. Wali put Kapoor under pressure by
winning crucial points as he closed in at 14-all before hitting a winner
to seal victory.
Akhil – Nikhil duo bite the dust in Round 1 (Article in Indian Express,
Mumbai : 27/6/2000)
The fancied teams of Akhil Behl - Nikhil Lalwani and Deepali Anvekar –
Vijay Sonawane suffered shock defeats against lesser known opponents in
the first round of the team events of the Leela Switcher – Monarch Twin
Handicap Team & Doubles Squash Championship at the Leela on Sunday.
Xavier Bunty of Juhu Centaur sidelined Behl and Lalwani 15-5, 12-15,
15-3 while Arvind Singh and Sarvesh Chauhan of Jindal beat Anvekar and
Sonawane 12-15, 15-8, 15-13.
Sonu, Shashi rally to enter third round (Article in Indian Express,
Mumbai : 4/7/2000)
Sonu Mirani and Shashi Gupta stage a splendid recovery in the deciding
game to register a come from behind 2-1 win over fancied Karan Bhatty and
Jatin Guranani, to advance to the third round of the team event in The
Leela Switcher – Monarch Twin Handicap Team & Doubles Squash
Championship at The Leela Hotel, on Sunday.
Merani and Gupta of Navi Mumbai Sports Association, set aside the first
game deficit to get back into the match by winning the second quite
comfortably.
But the going was not as easy as they expected in the deciding game
Merani and Gupta trailed 5-14 and it took an extraordinary effort for them
to neutralize the score at 14-14, while Bhatty and Guranani buckled under
pressure.
Inspired by the experience of winning nine points in a row, Merani and
Gupta finally pipped their opponents for a thrilling 9-15, 15-7, 15-14
victory.
Saket on a high (Article in Mid-Day, Mumbai :
11/7/2000)
Saket Wali came up a scintillating performance in the team and doubles
categories to hog the limelight in the Leela- Switcher- Monarch Twin
Handicap Squash championship at the Leela Hotel on Sunday.
Saket led The Club to convincing 2-0 win over Willingdon Cathollic
Gymkhana to book a berth in the final for the team event and later
partnered Amit Pal Kohli to carve out a 17-14, 11-15, 17-16 quarter final
win over fancied Anurag Gill and Rishabh Singhvi in the doubles category.
After winning a close opening game, Saket and Amit Pal allowed their
opponents to neutralize by surprisingly surrendering the second. But they
staged a spectacular recovery in the decider while trailing 7-14. Relying
on their resources, Saket and Amit Pal came up with timely winners to draw
level of 14-all, which put Gill and Singhvi under pressure.
Saket’s and Amit Pal’s troubles were not over as Gill and Singhvi
battled hard to surge to crucial 16-14 advantage. But, to their dismay,
the former capitalized on their revel's missed opportunities to come
back from match-ball and clinch the issue in sensational fashion at 17-16.
Behl – Lalwani lose out in Leela squash (Article in Mid-Day, Mumbai :
30/6/2000)
The fancied teams of Akhil Behl and Nikhil Lalwani and Deepali Anvekar
and Vijay Sonawane were shocked by lesser-known opponents in the first
round of the team even of the Leela-Switcher-Monarch twin handicap squash
championship at the Leela.
The two pairs were among the three who experienced early upsets, the
third being Bipin Batra and Jonathan Joshi.
Relatively unknown Xavier Marquis and Bunty of Juhu Centaur created the
first flutter when they beat Behl and Lalwani 15-5, 12-15, 15-3. Behl and
Lalwani made a comeback by taking the second game, but too many unforced
errors in the decider proved costly as they caved in rather meekly.
Priyanka wins
(Article in Mid-Day, Mumbai :
6/6/2000)
Leading from the front, Priyanka Yadav took host Leela into the
quarter-finals of the Leela Monarch Twin Squash team after an exciting 2-1
win over Otters ‘C’ at The Leela on Sunday.
Playing the opening file, Yadav over-came a brief scare in the third
game to prevail over a gallant Avinash Bhavnani 15-11, 13-15, 17-16 in a
close contest. After winning the first game and surprisingly surrendering
the second, the skipper found the going though when Bhavnani restored
party at 14-14 to force the game into extra points. Ideally, Yadav should
have opted for a difference of one point to settle the issue, but
strangely chose to opt for three.
Underdog Bhavnani seized the initiative and won
the first two points
to lead 16-14. Playing under immense pressure, Yadav nevertheless relied
on her experience and resources to draw level, forcing Bhavnani into
errors, before the latter made one more error to give up fight.
