Veer Chotrani and Sanya Vats emerged victors in the U-19 boys and girls’ singles respectively during the inaugural Southern Slam junior squash on Thursday.
Chotrani outplayed Sankalp Anand, the conqueror of the top seed Utkarsh Baheti in the semis. Except in the first game, which went close and ended on extra points, the rest of his task was easy, which is a big compliment to Chotrani who has seldom been seen here in such a dominant role.
However in the girls section, top seed Sanya Vats, gave little freedom to the Mumbai girl Ananya Dabke. A top performer in the U-17 section, Ananya had decided on a higher age category and had impressed though the final proved she had a little more to go before ascending on the high pedestal in this section.
Among the others, there was substance in the U-17 girls final between second seed Taniskha Jain and local girl Abhisheka Shannon. That the match went five games with fortunes oscillating right through reflected the closeness of the tie.
Jain emerged the winner, like Paarth Ambani in the U-15 section over Rutva Samant in similar situation.
Final Results:
Boys
U-19: Veer Chotrani (3/4) bt Sankalp Anand (5/8) 17-15, 11-2, 11-6; U-17: Arnaav Sareen (1) bt Navaneeth Prabhu S (3/4) 11-6, 11-7, 11-7; U-15: Paarth Ambani (1) bt Rutva Samant (2) 7-11, 11-7, 11-7, 6-11, 11-6; U-13: Tavneet Singh Mundra (2) bt Arihant Ks (1) 11-6, 11-6, 11-7; U-11: Agastya Bansal (3/4), bt Subhash Choudhary (1) 11-7, 11-9, 11-8.
Girls
U-19: Sanya Vats (1) bt Ananya Dabke 11-6, 11-6, 11-6; U-17: Tanishka Jain (2) bt Abhisheka Shannon (3/4) 6-11, 11-6, 14-12, 7-11, 11-6; U-15: Kaavya Bansal (2) bt Aaryaa Belsare (9/16) 11-7, 11-7, 11-7; U-13:Anahat Singh (2) bt Nayna Taneja (3 /4) 11-4, 11-3, 11-3; U-11: Akanksha Gupta (1) bt Sanvi Batar (2) 12-10, 6-11, 12-10, 7-11, 11-9.