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The season’s first major squash activity gets underway on Sunday with the Rs. 3,00,000 ISA junior Open, a three-star SRFI event, to be held at the Academy courts. Around 350 players sent in entries for this event to be held in five age categories: U-11, 13, 15, 17 and 19 for boys and girls. The final is slated for May 28.
A major change this time will be the absence of Kush Kumar, a dominant name in the juniors until last year. Out of the juniors now, Kush is busy in the professional circuit even as the focus now shifts on who would take his place as the top U-19 in the country. On seeding, Yohan Pandole of Maharashtra has been given the top billing while reigning national junior champion in the girls, Harshit Kaur is the favourite on the distaff side.
All is set then for the competition with the first day expected to be a crowded one comprising qualifying rounds in the various age categories.
Last year’s winners: Boys: U-19: Kush Kumar ; U-17: Velavan Senthil Kumar; U-15: Dev Vazirani; U-13: Yash Fadte; U-11: Ishaan Nayar; Girls: U-19: Harishit Kaur; U-17: Akanksha Salunkhe; U-15: Sunayna Kuruvilla; U-13: Samita Sivakumar; U-11: Ananya Dabke.
The seedings:
Boys:
U-19: 1-Yohan Pandole (MH), 2-Aishwary Singh (MH), 3/4-Junaid Muzzafar Thoker (DL) and Velavan Senthil Kumar (TN);
U-17: 1-Adhitya Raghavan (TN), 2-Robin Singh Mann (DL), 3/4-Abhay Singh (TN) and Ranjit Singh (DL);
U-15: 1-Tushar Shahani (MH), 2-Veer Chotrani (MH), 3/4-Rahul Baitha (MH) and Yash Fadte (GA);
U-13: 1-Navaneeth Prabhu S (TN), 2-Neel Joshi (MH), 3/4-Shreeman Raghavan (TN) and Shreyas Mehta (MH);
U-11: 1-Paarth Ambani (MH), 2-Ansh Tripathi (TN), 3/4-Jaivir Singh Dhillon (DL) and Sreekartikeyan R (TN)
Girls:
U-19: 1-Harshit Kaur Jawanda (DL), 2-Adya Advani (DL), 3/4-Apoorva A V (TN) and Mayuri Namasivayam (TN);
U-17: 1-Akanksha Salunkhe (GA), 2-Sunayna Kuruvilla (TN), 3/4-Ashita Pranaya Bhengra (TN) and Nikita Joshi (MH);
U-15:1-Diya Joukani (MH), 2-Navmi Sharma (MH), 3/4-Jeffery Bianca (TN) and Samita Sivakumar (TN):
U-13: 1-Megha Bhatia (DL), 2-Ananya Dabke (MH), 3/4-Aryaa Ogale (MH) and Avani Nagar (MH);
U-11: 1-Yuvna Gupta (MH), 2-Pooja Arthi R (TN), 3/4-Archita Singh (MH) and Gitanjali Vasudevan (TN)
The junior open has the support of Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu, TNSRA apart from Courtyard Marriott, Abu Sarovar Portico, Paulsons, Sportskeeda, Tecnifibre and Sports Mechanics.
