University of Madras win squash tourney, MAHE runners-up again

Manipal: University of Madras were the winners of the All-India Inter-University Squash Championship for women with a 3-0 win over hosts Manipal Academy of Higher Education , at Manipal, on Friday. Pandit Ravishankar Shukla University Raipur finished third with a 3-1 win over Savitribai Phule University Pune.

University of Madras, with a strong team of players, have recorded their fourth straight win in the championships. With an international player and others from the squash academy in Chennai, the Madras team is formidable and far superior than all teams in this level of competition, said sources.

MAHE, who were runners-up last year as well, found the going tough, and only the third player, Sukrita, put up a semblance of a fight. She tried hard ,but her opponent Kritica J S, one of the players from MAHE, was a tough nut to crack. Despite that, Sukrita fought well in the first two games. But Kritica, with her superior game, provided University of Madras the championship.

In the first match Ayan, took a game off Shivani V and raised some hope for MAHE. After losing the first game at 4, Ayan came back strongly to win the second 11-9. That did not ruffle Shivani, who put University Madras one match up, winning the next two games comfortably at 11-4, 11-4.

The second Madras player Rathika S made short work of Muskaan, who never could get her game together. Rathika dropped four points in the first game, and in the other two Muskan did not even open her account.

In the match for third and fourth place, Pandit Ravishankar Shukla University Raipur overcame a poor start to finish third. Savitribai’s Radhika Parab played a brilliant game to beat Priya Vishwakarma 11-1, 11-2 and 11-4. Their second player Priyanka Mantri did make an effort, winning the first game against Nidhi 11-7. But Priyanka lost the next game all too soon, at 3, and then tried to rally, but it did not work out her way, and Nidhi won in four games.

The third player, Prerna Rajpoot had no problem beating Palrika Mohan, but Nishita Tewari was stretched all the way to five games by a determined Shubhangini Pandey. H S Ballal, pro-chancellor, MAHE, gave away the prizes.