MUMBAI, OCT 4: Top seeds Junaid Nathani and Deepali Anvekar crowned themselves champions in the boys and girls under-19 categories in the All-India WMI-Little Masters Junior Squash Tournament at the Willingdon Sports Club courts, here, on Monday.Nathani, who had succumbed to a bout of over-confidence to lose his under-17 final to Delhi's second seed Neerav Tomar earlier in the day, was careful to remain focused all through his four-game final against Mihir Kapoor. Helped along by a string of unforced errors from the second seed Mihir, Nathani emerged winner in four games at 9-1, 9-6, 4-9, 9-6.In the process, Nathani made amends for his loss last week to Mihir in the final of the SRAM tournament at the Otters Club.Deepali had not such problems against fourth seed Supriya Balsekar and won without much ado, the scoreline of 9-2, 9-2, 9-3 telling the tale.Earlier in the day, Nathani lost a gruelling five-game under-17 encounter to Delhi's Tomar, paying the price for underestimating the gritty 15-year-old. With the games tied at 2-2, Nathani was leading 7-3, before he let his guard down. Two shots into the tin, two strokes to his opponent, and one kill from Tomar saw the scores tied at 7-7, after which the lad from Delhi went through 9-7. The final score-line read 5-9, 9-1, 10-8, 1-9, 9-7 in Tomar's favour.Tomar, who had lost 1-3 to Nathani in the semi-finals of the under-19 on Sunday had predicted that he would beat him in the final. It was this self-confidence that saw him through.Playing his second final of the day should have been a disadvantage for Nathani, but Mihir never pressed him hard. In fact, Mihir lost the first game tamely, and it seemed he had not even warmed up. In the second, Mihir jumped to a 6-0 lead and looked focused enough to level scores, before a lose shot saw him lose serve and also the momentum. He had Nathani at his mercy in the front of the court, but tried to do too much with his kill and found the tin. Nathani pulled to 6-6 and went ahead to take the game. Mihir played his best squash in the third to win 9-4 and in the fourth, to recover up to 6-7 after trailing 1-7. This time too, Mihir let go of the match with a loose serve and Nathani duly won the two points for game and match.The boys under-15 final saw second seed Saurva Ghoshal of Calcutta take a game off the top seed Karanpal Sethi before losing in four. Sethi prevailed 5-9, 9-6, 9-6, 9-1. There was also a tough encounter in the girls under-13, with top seed Alisha Mashruwala being taken the distance before getting the better of second seed Natasha Lal. Alisha prevailed 9-0, 3-9, 6-9, 9-1, 9-3.In the boys under-13 final, top seed Gautam Kalani beat second seed Nikhil Seth 9-1, 9-3, 10-9, while in the boys under-11 final, third seed Naishad Lalwani had to sweat if out before beating fourth seed Jay Bhagat 9-2, 1-9, 3-9, 10-9, 9-4.The winners in the boys under-19, under-17 and under-15 categories received Rs 20,000, Rs 14,000 and Rs 6,000 respectively, while the winners in the girls under-19 and under-13 categories received Rs 14,000 and Rs 5,000 respectively.Results (all finals)(Seedings in prefix)Boys - Under-19: 1-Junaid Nathani bt 2-Mihir Kapoor 9-1 9-6 4-9 9-6; U-17: 2-Neerav Tomar bt 1-Junaid Nathani 5-9 9-1 10-8 1-9 9-7; U-15: 1-Karanpal Sethi bt 2-Saurav Goshal 5-9 9-6 9-6 9-1; U-13: 1-Gautam Kalani bt 2-Nikhil Seth 9-1 9-3 10-9; U-11: 3-Naishad Lalwani bt 4-Jay Bhagat 9-2 1-9 3-9 10-9 9-4.Girls - U-19: 1-Deepali Anvekar bt 4-Supriya Balsekar 9-2 9-2 9-3; U-13: 1-Alisha Mashruwala bt 2-Natasha Lal 9-0 3-9 6-9 9-1 9-3.
