Matunga Gym trio steal the show in junior squash tourney

Mumbai, Aug 10 (UNI) Brothers-in-arms Jeshad and Dhanush Dumasia and Jash Chheda, all of Bombay Scottish, stole the day's honours and did the hosts proud with impressive wins, in the DHFL-Matunga Gymkhana Junior Squash Open Tournament, at the Matunga Gymkhana here today.

In the match of the day, Chheda, who endured a late challenge after a dream start, kicked off a memorable day with a nail-biting 11-8, 10-12, 13-11 win over Siddharth Menon in the under-9 first round.

Menon ignored the early deficit and came right back into the match by snatching the second game over extra points and forcing the decider. The third and final game that also went into extra points could have gone either way in a neck-to-neck battle but Chheda held his nerve and served to take it away from Menon.

The Dumasias were equally impressive as both faced girls in the first round and won. Uninhibited against the opposite sex, Dhanush rallied to an exciting 5-11, 11-6, 11-7 win over Daksha Pathak, while Jeshad overcame Vedika Bhuta 11-5, 11-13, 11-8 in another thriller that included an absorbing second game which extended into extra points.

Unfortunately, Chheda ran into Dhanush in the second round and crashed 5-11, 7-11, while Jeshad crushed Yash Shah 11-3, 11-2 to set up a quarter-final encounter with his brother.

Meanwhile, girl's under-13 top seed Soumya Karki and second seed Urvashi Joshi won their second round ties in straight games to advance to the quarter-finals.

Results: Girls U-13 (2nd round): Soumya Karki bt Aishwarya Nambiar 11-3, 11-3; Shweta Yadav bt Uttara Srinivas 11-1, 11-0; Varsha Pandey bt Ruchi Mishra 12-10, 11-5; Urvashi Joshi bt Aishwarya Kulkarni 11-5, 11-1.

Boys U-11 (2nd round): Khiteej Prasad bt Mohit Yadav 12-10, 11-8; Aashay Kejdiwal bt Kautubh Joshi 11-2, 11-1; Ashish Gavankar bt Hiren Mansukhani 11-6, 11-7; Aditya Singh bt Viraj Nadkarni 11-5, 4-11, 11-7; Karan Lalchandani bt Vikram Gill 12-10, 11-9; Siddharth Gokaran bt Nehal Patidar 11-9, 9-11, 11-7; Rajesh Pandey bt Arnav Mokadam 11-5, 11-6; Sandeep Paswan bt Rushil Gupta 11-4, 11-3; Aditya Mehra bt Mudit Gupta 8-11, 11-7, 11-9; Aishwarya Singh bt Mohneesh Hinduja 11-2, 11-4; Keshav Kalani bt Neerav Behamy 11-0, 11-5; Madhav Gupta bt D. Merani 11-0, 11-1.

Boys U-9 (2nd round): Dhanush Dumasia bt Jash Chheda 11-5, 11-7, Jeshad Dumasia bt Yash Shah 11-7, 11-2.

1st Round: Aishwarya Bhattacharya bt Archit C. 11-0, 11-2; Ardhehl Nainan bt M. Darsh 11-3, 11-1; Ivan Philip bt Deepankar Prayani 11-2, 11-3; Dhanush Dumasia bt Daksha Pathak 5-11, 11-6, 11-7; Jash Chheda bt Siddharth Menon 11-8, 10-12, 13-11; Jeshad Dumasia bt Vedika Bhuta 11-5, 11-13, 11-8; Aryan Parekh bt Abhinav A. 11-3, 11-4; Shreya Ladiwala bt Shanay Dharod 11-5, 11-6; Ishan Jindal bt Rehan Phofalia 11-2, 11-5; Jaya Pandey bt Jay Gala 11-8, 11-5; Dev Vazirani bt Mahir Jhaveri 11-1, 11-4; Siddhant Kumar bt Parshwa Adani 11-4, 11-2; Param Maru bt Rayna Kishanchandani 11-2, 14-12.

UNI