It would be gross injustice not to at least recognise the efforts and overall outstanding performances of the various UCSCsians who participated in the recently concluded Individual Graded 2010.

On Saturday 24th July @ Yio Chu Kang Squash Centre, we had a UCSCsian in every Men's final and one in a Ladies' final.

Men's A Semi-Final: A titanic battle took place between Samuel Kang and Darren Subramaniam which saw the crowd thrilled by a ail-biting 5-setter. Samuel Kang held match-point in the rubber at 10-6 only to see the indomitable Darren claw back to force deuce before winning 13-11. Darren has a superb 5-set recording with 12 wins in 15 such 5-setters. Darren went on to play Vivian Rhamanan in the Final held the following weekend (July 31st) at the Leisure Park Kallang Atrium in a specially leased 4-sided glass court. The match was also televised 'Live' on Sports Channel 201.

Men's Final (July 31st): In that Final, it appeared all over for Darren when Vivian raced away to a 2-set lead over a strangely subdued Darren. Perhaps it was the occasion and the fact that this was the first time Darren was playing a competitive match in a 4-sided glass court and televised 'live'. However, few knew that Darren had suffered a shin splint in the middle of the 2nd set and was in great discomfort. In the 3rd set, a slightly more competitive Darren took back a set to set up a 4th. In the 4th, Darren pushed through the pain barrier to force Vivian to deuce. Vivian threw away a couple of match points to allow Darren to edge home to force yet another rubber, much to the delight of the big crowd who were by then, on the edge of their seats. Supporters were shouting out their respective favorite's name. In the rubber, Darren was trailing most of the set which saw Vivian holding 2 match-points at 10-8. But at that stage, the memory of a similar situation in the recently concluded national squash league where Darren fought off a dozen match-points held by Vivian to win (you guessed it) the rubber by 16-14, must have been playing on Vivian's mind. He played a poor trickle boast into the tin to allow Darren to draw closer at 9-10 before Vivian made yet another error to allow (yes.... again) deuce. Holding another 2 match points, Vivian fluffed the first one and when deja vu was ready to make its appearance, Darren hit a loose drive which was clearly creating a 'stroke' situation in favor of Vivian, sportingly conceded the 'stroke' to Vivian who at that point, gratefully touched his own chest in relief and the two gladiators showed the ultimate respect for each other with a brief hug before the crowd applauded the new 2010 Men's A Champion in Vivian Rhamanan, who throughout the 5-sets, displayed the utmost sportsmanship even during intense competition. As for Darren, there was no loser, just a heroic and highly respected 1st Runner-up who will surely only go on to become an even better squash player.

Men's B Final (July 24th @ YCK): This Final pitched the hot favorite, UCSCsian Jason Ho, vs. Tim Leong of SCC. Jason was not expected to encounter much resistance in the expected march to the Men's B title. After all, Jason had comfortably (if not clearly) beaten Tim in the Men's B team event just weeks earlier and had put up an impressive performance against Singapore national player, Nigel Koh, when Jason supported the UCSC Men's A team at Kallang. But Tim Leong was pumped up and had other ideas. The pattern of play became evident when Jason persisted in engaging in long, fast, punishing rallies with a young 15-year old who thrives on momentum. The 3-0 win by Tim leong was unexpected but thoroughly deserved although nothing can be taken away from our Jason, who had a phenomenal season but had an off-day against a formidable opponent who was on song.

Men's C Final: The UCSCsian top-seed, Pang Ka Wai faced the super-fit (and surprisingly unseeded) Tak Kumar from Police. The very strong gurkha put up a gallant fight against Ka Wai only in the first set. Afetr dropping that close set by 12-14, it was almost a stroll in the park for the live-wire from UCSC who won 3-0 to become the Men's C individual champion.

Men's D Final: It was unusual enough to have an official 'F'-grader registered to play 2 grades higher in the Men's D, but to be seeded 3rd, was an eye-opener. The precocious Benedict Chan was the UCSCsian in question. This young man, who only took up the sport some 18 months ago, then truly opened not only eyes, but caused severe jaw dislocation when he stormed through to the Final and defeat the odds-on top-seed from New Pioneers, Woody Tham. The top-seed looked on course to justify his seeding when he took the first set 11-9. But he did not reckon for the sheer tenacity and audacity of his young upstart opponent who got into his stride to dismantle the top-seed to become the 2010 men's D Champion, 18 months after picking up the sport. Audacious indeed.... But so well-deserved!

Men's E Final: What is there to say of UCSCsian, Chris Yap? Top-seeded, he came, he saw, he conquered.... winning all his matches without dropping a single set and strolling in an almost one-sided Final to become 2010 Men's E Champion.

Men's F Final: A much-improved Daryl Tan, justified his No.2 seeding with some fine performances to enter the Final against a hunky Justin Ho who was slipped under the organiser's seeding radar. Daryl appeared to be in fine form when taking the first set. But while he remained fine form, Justin got into finer form and took the next 3 to prevent yet another UCSC victory. It was an excellent performance nonetheless, by Daryl and we look forward to greater things from him in 2011.

Ladies' (Combined) E/F Final: This event was all played to form with all top four seeds making the semi-finals as expected and then Cheryl played Denise Lim as expected, then Cheryl beat Denise.... as expected. The 2010 Ladies E (I dropped the F letter) is Cheryl Wong (as expected)!

UCSCsians in 7 Finals which resulted in 4 UCSC champions and 3 runners-up ..... Fabulous individual achievements following the fabulous team ones earlier.

UCSC Lives & Breathes Squash!

For pictures of the Finals day, please click on:

http://picasaweb.google.com/squashsg/SingaporeIndividualGradedChampionshipSquash2010Finals?feat=email%23#

Attachments:

Michael & Darren @ Men\'s A Final.JPG

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04/08/10 17:58