Sahil makes a bright start

By S.R. Suryanarayan

CHENNAI, DEC. 12. Practice makes one perfect, it is said. Young Sahil Vora may still have a long way to go but he showed the virtues of organised training by downing a senior, G. Bhandari of the Services Board in straight games to make a bright start in the India Cements-senior National squash championship at the India Cements courts here on Tuesday.

Vora, a 16-year old Mumbai plus-one student from H.R. College, was a semifinalist in the junior National held here two months ago. Thereafter selected for the coaching camp being held here in preparation for the Asian junior championship next year, Vora has certainly improved a few notches in fitness and skill.

A sample of which he dished out to outstep and outshoot Bhandari. Youthful exuberance has its advantages particularly in a sport where speed and agility are prime requirements. Vora had this in plenty and added to it techniques to unsettle a rival. It was only in the third game that Bhandari tried to outwit his young rival, even went 8-6 up but at that `gameball' stage, Vora fought back with a few good placements and stretched the game to nine points all. From there, Vora wasted three match points before settling the issue.

Neerav Tomar, Gaurav Nandrajog and Abhimanyu Jain were the other campers who came up with impressive wins. The list could have included the 14-year-old bundle of energy, Saurav Ghosal but the Bengal lad could only earn the distinction of extending a senior Saket Wali, as he went down in four games, the only match to go that distance.

The first day of the main draw matches saw National champion Manish Chotrani from Mumbai and runner-up Ritwik Bhattacharya, the Nike and JCT sponsored player from Delhi in action. Both of them as also other seeds moved into the next round. The way Chotrani was seen practicing after his match should explain how easy his outing against local lad and qualifier Anand V. Subramaniam was.

However, Bhattacharya had a surprise show of resilience from another qualifier, left handed Gautam Sharma. The Delhi player took time to settle against the south paw but that was only a brief moment of excitement for what followed thereafter seemed in keeping with the former's stature.

The results: Men: first round: Manish Chotrani (Mah) bt Anand V. Subramaniam (TN) 9-0, 9-2, 9-4; Amit Chinai (Mah) bt M. Shekatkar (SSCB) 9-1, 9-0, 9-4; Gaurav Nandrajog (Del) bt A. Choudhary 9-3, 9-0, 9-2; Gajendra Singh Rathore (Raj) bt Naman Saraswat (MP) 9- 0, 9-0, 9-0; Anuj Kalia (SSCB) bt Vijay Jangra (Mah) 9-5, 9-1, 9- 4; Cyrus Poncha (Mah) bt Satyajit Seshadri (TN)9-2, 9-0, 9-0; Neerav Tomar (Del) bt A.S. Bhist (SSCB) 9-1, 9-7, 9-2; Bikram Uberoi (Mah) bt Siddarth Lulla (TN) 9-1, 9-2, 9- 5; Navneet Narain (SSCB) bt Rakesh Kumar Pradhan (MP) 9-0, 9-0, 9-0; Sahil Vora (Mah) bt G. Bhandari (SSCB) 9-0, 9-1, 10-9; Varun Kataruka (Del) w/o Anil Vaidya (Mah); Dheeraj Singh (Raj) bt Rohit Thawani (Mah) 9-0, 9-2, 9-2; A.S. Chonkar (SSCB) bt Nikhil Bhandare (Mah) 9-3, 9-5, 9-1; Abhimanyu Jain (Del) bt Amjad Khan (Del) 9-1, 9-1, 9-3; Saket Wali (Mah) bt Saurav Ghosal (WB) 9-5, 2-9, 9-4, 9-4; Ritwik Bhattacharya (Del) bt Gautam Sharma (Raj) 9-7, 9-1, 9-0.

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