Windsor U15 at RTC Cup

     This weekend 7 of Windsor's top U15 players took part in the inaugural Round Table Cup at Mayfair Lakeshore.  This team tournament was open to all clubs in Ontario and the intent was to get the province's top U15 players together for some meaningful matches and, of course, crown the top club!  8 of Ontario's most prominent club were up for the challenge.  Windsor Squash and Fitness team consisted of, Imola Nagy, Ananya Maheshwari, Carter Furmanek, Dylan Charles, Vishaal Mehta, Gavin Chamandy and Gabe VanMorsel coached by Dave Morrish.
     Windsor cruised through the first two rounds barely dropping a match.  In the semi-finals they came up against a very strong Mayfair Lakeshore team.  WSF managed to squeak through with a very tight 4-3 win, putting them in the finals verse the #1 seed, Ontario Racquet Club.  First up was Imola Nagy.  Imola's game has been coming on strong and she showed this weekend she was ready to take the next step in her game.  She played a strong match, hitting great shots and moving her opponent around the court.  Unfortunately, her opponent was a veteran of many high level squash tournaments and he was able to hang around and take the match. 
      There was no concern on the WSF team because Gavin was up next.  Gavin has really picked up his game and he was very steady on the court thus far.  Gavin continued his great play with amazing retrieving and shot-making and tied up the match 1-1.   Next up was Dylan.  Dylan came out firing Game 1 and put on a brilliant display of steady, error-free play and easily won game 1.  Dylan's opponent wasn't going down without a fight and Game 2 could have gone either way.  A couple of great shots by his opponent allowed him to take Game 2.  Game 3 & 4 were equally tight but Dylan just could not pull through.  ORC 2, WSF 1.
     Next up was Carter.  Carter had plenty of opportunities to win game 1 with 3 game balls.  A couple of bad bounces caused Carter to lose Game 1.  The rest of the match was equally tight.  Either player could have won this match but ORC took the win, 3-1.  While this was going on, Gabe was also battling it out on the court next door.  Gabe put up a fierce battle against a very tough opponent and he couldn't put a stop the ORC wave.  This meant that mathematically, WSF couldn't win.  That didn't stop Ananya and Vishaal playing for pride and make this a closer match.  In the end, ORC was too strong, winning the tournament 6-1.  However, Windsor did amazing finishing 2nd out of 8 and finishing higher than their seed.  Well done team!

Ciena Healthcare Gold #2

   Windsor Squash and Fitness was the second stop on the Ontario Gold circuit and 95 of Ontario's best squash players made their way to Windsor.  For some of Windsor's newer juniors, this was their introduction to high-level tournament play.  For others, they were looking to continue to move up the rankings and improve their play. 
     Friday and Saturday saw some amazing squash.  Top-seeded Ananya Maheshwari moved on in her round-robin after playing a tough 5-gamer.   Amin Khan (#4 seed) upset the #1 seed in 4 games.  Vishaal Mehta and Jagroop Bhangoo cruised through the consolation draws. 
     Saturday night was the Ciena Healthcare sponsored dinner.  Windsor is the only tournament that puts on a dinner/banquet for all its participants.  The highlight of the night is the iPhone draw for the players, courtesy of Ciena Healthcare.  How appropriate that Phil Shillington (Dave's co-op student) won a phone given that he just dropped and broke his this week. 
     Sunday was finals day for all the draws/division.  Without a doubt, the most anticipated match of the day was Amin's.  Amin was out to revenge his loss to Daniel Malik in the last tournament.  Today was Amin's day as he rode the home crowd support to take the U17 title in 5 games.  Well done Amin!
     Not to be overlooked was another important match.  Ananya was in the U15 finals on the court next door.  Windsorites were torn about what match to watch.  Ananya's match also went 5 games and game 5 was only separated by a couple of points.  Unfortunately Ananya couldn't pull out game 5.  Ananya's play showed us that she is going to be a tough competitor in future tournaments. 
     Other notables from the weekend.  Jagroop had a really strong tournament by winning the consolation.  Vishaal stepped up his game and making it to the consolation finals.  Nathan Brockenshire showed that he is ready to compete in Ontario Golds. 
     Once again, the Windsor community stepped up and helped make this event the best junior tournament in Ontario.  Many compliments were given by out of towners about WSF hospitality and the greater community.  Thank you Anis for sponsoring this event and making it the great tournament it is.  Thank you to Graeme and Dave for running a very smooth tournament.  Thank you to the junior committee for all of your work behind the scenes. 
    Pictures of the event (courtesy of Iris and Isobel) can be found here.  Complete draws can be found here.