Mumbai, August 30:Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu of Tamil Nadu and Englishman Robert Downer, the number one seed and second seed respectively in the men’s event of the 42nd Maharashtra State Men’s & Women’s Squash tournament, will launch their campaign on Thursday morning. The Maharashtra State championship is being organised by Bombay Gymkhana under aegis of SRFI and Maharashtra Squash Rackets Association and will be played at the Gymkhana’s glass-back courts.
The current India No. 3 and former National champion Harinder Pal, who has been awarded a first round bye, will take on the winner of the first round match between Sachin Ughade (Mah) and Parth Jindal (Mah) at 11.00am. The winner of the match between Avinash Sainani (Guj) and Kabbir Sukhwani (Mah) will meet Robert Downer (world rank 207) in the second round at 12noon.
Meanwhile, women’s top seed Sachika Ingale of Uttar Pradesh will start her campaign on Friday. She will meet the winner of the first round meeting between Assam’s Chayanika Changkakoti and Rewa Bharma of Maharashtra.
Second seed Urvashi Joshi, a losing semi-finalist at the recently concluded SRFI Senior Nationals, will clash with either Mira Kamat (USA) or Dhwani Shah (Mah) in the second round.
The finals of the Maharashtra State championship, which is one of the longest running squash tournaments, is scheduled to be held on Sunday, 3rd September, 2017.
The Bombay Gymkhana will also be hosting the 9th Indian Junior Open Squash tournament, which has been accorded the status of an Asian Squash Federation Platinum tournament and a 5-Star tournament on the Indian Junior squash circuit, from 2nd September to 6th September, 2017.The Maharashtra State tournament, will consist of competitions in seven different categories – Men’s, Women’s, Men’s Over 35, Men’s Over 45, Men’s Over 55 and Professionals.
Vijay Paranjpe, is the Organising Chairman, the Championship Director is Sumeet Rewari and the Championship Administrator is Manan Mashruwala.Seeding list:Maharashtra State: Men: 1. Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (TN), 2. Robert Downer (Eng), 3-4. Aditya Jagtap (Mah), Ravi Dixit (Haryana); 5-8: Abhishek Agarwal (Mah), Gaurav Nandrajog (Del), Sandeep Jangra (Ser), Vikas Jangra (Del).Women: 1. Sachika Ingale (UP), 2. Urwashi Joshi (Mah), 3-4. Ashita Pranaya Bhengra (TN), Sachika Balvani (Mah); 5-8. Oma Choudhary (Raj), Pranjali Sharma (Mah), Riya Sisodia (Del) , Sarah Vethekar (Mah).