India’s Anahat Singh (R) and Egypt’s Karim El Torkey won the JSW Indian Open Squash titles at Bombay Gymkhana on Friday. |
India’s Anahat Singh bulldozed her way to clinch the JSW Indian Open Squash title beating Helen Tang of Hong Kong 11-9, 11-5, 11-8 in straight games at the Bombay Gymkhana squash courts to achieve the biggest success of her career.
The 17-year-old from Delhi has been in rollicking form lately and had clinched the SRFI Indian Tour event in Chennai which was her biggest win until her success here in Mumbai.
Up against the gritty Tang, Anahat was unstoppable from the word go as she bagged the first game by keeping her nerve and composure.
The second and third games were over in a jiffy as the Hong Kong lass struggled to find answers against the aggressive Indian, who was on a rampage.
Earlier, Egypt’s Karim El Torkey outclassed India’s Abhay Singh as he clinched the men’s title. El Torkey beat Abhay three games to one with a scoreline of 12-10, 11-4, 7-11, 12-10 in a fairly one-sided tussle.
Abhay Singh and Karim El Torkey went up strong against each other in the first game. Abhay started well taking a 4-1 lead that saw him stretch El Torkey with his tactics. The Indian was winning points on the basis of hand outs after winning few long rallies early in the game.
El Torkey wasn’t in any mood to let Abhay take the initiative as he equalised at 5-5 before taking a slender 6-5 lead.
Abhay showed his class drawing level at 6-6 with another handout.
Hand outs were deciding the points more or less as both players slugged it out for supremacy.
It was 9-9 at one stage before getting to 10-10 at hand out ensuring that a player has to win with two points.
El Torkey bagged the first game 12-10 to draw first blood.
The second game saw El Torkey in a hurry to brush aside Abhay as he raced to a 5-0 lead.
Abhay was clearly struggling to his more superior opponent after putting up a strong fight in the first game.
The Egyptian kept attacking as he got to 9-3 before Abhay pulled a point back.
However, it was game to El Torkey at 11-4 as he stamped his authority on the final.
The third game saw a more even battle and Abhay came into his own pushing El Torkey on the backfoot as he got to a 9-6 lead.
He kept the intensity up and the rallies long as he claimed the third game 11-7.
Come the fourth game, El Torkey was back in the reckoning.
The Egyptian took a 5-2 lead to grab the initiative.
El Torkey stretched it to 9-7 as he looked all set to become champion but then Abhay was not going to go down without some resistance.
The Indian levelled at 9-9.
El Torkey won the 10th point to get to match ball and eventually he closed the game and match at 12-10.
