Chennai: Mahesh Mangaonkar stepped on to the court at the Indian Squash Academy here on Monday with no one to play with.<\/p>\n
For Saurav Ghosal, Harinder Pal Sandhu and Dipika Pallikal had just finished their practice session. The 17-year-old diligently played for nearly an hour all alone. Though not the favourite in the 59th senior National squash championships beginning on Wednesday, this will be an important tournament for the Maharashtra lad.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the first time I am seeded in the men’s top four. I want to do well. Of course, there is pressure, but I am learning to handle it,\u201d said Mahesh, who has not gone past the quarterfinals of the Nationals.<\/p>\n
Six-time champion and the top seed Saurav Ghosal who has been winning the Nationals since 2006 knows there will be stiff challenge from the young brigade and is not ready to take anything lightly. \u201cThere are several good players like Mahesh, Hari (Harinder Pal Sandhu). I will have to play very well to win,\u201d said Saurav, who is likely to meet Vikas Jangra of Services in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
The Hindu<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chennai: Mahesh Mangaonkar stepped on to the court at the Indian Squash Academy here on Monday with no one to play with. For Saurav Ghosal, Harinder Pal Sandhu and Dipika Pallikal had just finished their practice session. The 17-year-old diligently played for nearly an hour all alone. Though not the favourite in the 59th senior […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-from-the-newspapers"],"yoast_head":"\n