Shanay goes down fighting, Shah siblings move up in 38th Bombay Gymkhana Senior Squash Championship

Chaitanya Shah

Young Shanay Sanghavi went down fighting in a Men’s Open second round thriller, in the 38th Bombay Gymkhana Maharashtra State Open Senior Squash Championship, on Wednesday.

Shanay of the host club forced professional Ganesh Kadam into four gruelling sets before losing 9-11, 9-11, 11-9, 10-12 in the most absorbing match of the competition’s opening day. Shanay kept his hopes alive by snatching the crucial third set before Kadam snatched the fourth in a nail-biter over extra points.

In contrast, Shah siblings, Abhimanyu and Chaitanya, also of Bombay Gymkhana, registered impressive wins to advance to the pre-quarter-finals. While Abhimanyu had an easy outing, Chaitanya rallied from the loss of a tight opening set to prevail over Harshvardhan Wadhwa of Otters Club 9-11, 11-3, 11-3, 11-7,

It was a rewarding day for Jindal players too as Shashi Pandey, Laxman Joshi and Aishwarya Singh sailed into the pre-quarter-finals.

Vijay Jangra of Mayo College, Ajmer, Manish Chavan, Baban More, Sachin Jadhav and Sanjay Pawar were the significant winners who entered the Professionals quarter-finals.

Results: Men’s Open: PQF: Abhinav Sinha bt Abhishek Agarwal 11-9, 11-8, 11-9.

3rd Rd: Abhinav Sinha bt Sumeet Yadav 11-5, 11-3, 11-2; Abhimanyu Shah (Bombay Gym) bt Aditya Maheshwari 11-5, 11-7, 11-3; Shashi Pandey (Jindal) bt Aditya Nahata 11-4, 11-5, 11-8; Chaitanya Shah (Bombay Gym) bt Harshvardhan Wadhwa (Otters Club) 9-11, 11-3, 11-3, 11-7; Laxman Joshi (Jindal) bt Karan Mirchandani 13-11, 11-8, 5-11, 11-6; Riyan Bhatia bt Urmil Sodha 11-5, 13-11, 11-3; Devchand Rai bt Varun Kumar 11-4, 1-11, 11-1, 11-6; Aishwarya Singh (Jindal) bt Arpit Rao 11-1, 11-4, 11-3; Abhishek Agarwal bt Pramod Kumar 11-3, 11-6, 11-5.

2nd Rd: Karan Mirchandani bt Siddhant Iyer 11-13, 11-4, 11-9, 11-2; Ganesh Kadam bt Shanay Sanghavi (Bombay Gym) 11-9, 11-9, 9-11, 12-10; Aditya Maheshwari bt Jinish Shah 11-3, 11-7, 11-5; Abhimanyu Shah (Bombay Gym) bt Yohann Poncha (Bombay Gym) 11-7, 11-7, 11-9; Yohann Surti (Willingdon SC) bt Shashi Pareek (Jindal) 14-12, 11-5, 11-7; Chaitanya Shah (Bombay Gym) bt Sikandar Pandey (Services) 11-6, 11-7, 11-7; Yohan Pandole (CCI) bt Ajay Pawar 11-5, 11-8, 11-2; Aditya Jagtap bt Puneet Pareek (Jindal) 11-9, 6-11, 11-3, 11-8; Pranay Jain bt Saneep Parab (SPA) 11-4, 11-7, 11-4.

Professionals (PQF): Manish Chavan (Bombay Gym) bt Prabjot Kavinkar 9-11, 11-4, 11-3, 11-7; Sachin Jadhav (JVPG) bt Rupesh Gurav (Willingdon SC) 11-6, 11-4, 11-7; Vijay Jangra (Mayo College, Ajmer) bt Devdas Tambe (Bombay Gym) 11-2, 11-7, 11-7; Vishant Salvi (Khar Gym) bt Sanjay Salvi 11-6, 11-5, 11-8; Baban More (Bombay Gym) bt Ganesh Kadam 9-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-7; Sanjay Pawar (Otters Club) bt Gopi Mohite (Bombay Gym) 111-4, 11-5, 11-4; Rohit Kadam (CCI) bt Ravindra Navale (NSCI) 11-3, 11-4, 11-2; Santosh Kharat (US Club) bt Umesh More (Bombay Gym) 11-6, 11-9, 11-3.