Anaka Alankamony moves into the quarters in the Chennai Open

On a creditable day for seasoned Joshna Chinappa and Anaka Alankamony, it was valuable experience for the Indian Squash Academy trainee Ashita Bhengra of Tamil Nadu and Delhi’s Harshit Kaur in the first round main draw of the Chennai Open Squash Championship that commenced here today.

Anaka Alankamony, currently the top most Indian junior making waves on international levels, despite failing to play to her potentials, put paid to the aspirations of seventh seeded Zulhijah Binti Azan of Malaysia to join the other seven seeds including Joshna Chinappa of India in the quarterfinals to be played tomorrow. Anaka won at 4-11, 11-0, 11-5, 4-11, 11-8 in 45 minutes.

Anaka’s match was the most interesting and the best amongst the eight matches held today. As the match started, it was evident that Anaka was listless in the manner in which she was moving around the court and not getting anything right. However, she surprised everyone with her game plan and scored at will to neutralize the game score one-all without yielding any point.

In the third game, it was a matter of keeping up the momentum and the Indian displayed great skills in mixing her drives and volleys and in fact, Anaka was swift to hold and then flick for points. But, the fourth turned out to be one in which Anaka slumped once again, like in the first game, and the match drifted to the decider. Here, Anaka led 4-1 and looked to be lost in concentration once again. Anaka, who gave six points in a row to the Malaysian, displayed great game skills to shift to the aggressive mode. Once Anaka got aggressive, the Malaysian threw in the towel.

In the side court, Ashita, a school going kid, went down in straight games to sixth seed Carrie Ramsey of England, but learnt useful lessons from the loss while Harshit Kaur, the current under-15 champion, went down fighting in a close tie against Malaysia’s Pushpa Devi, who could win 11-8, 12-10, 12-10.

Harshit was in her elements and brought her potential in to play, but lost the first game 8-11. The Malaysian had to bring somethingextra into her play apart from her experience as Harshit showed signs of recovery and rose to game ball up in the second. Here, the Indian lacked the required experience to finish for points after a rally. And in the final game too, Harshit carried on with her good work and kept pushing her but the left handed Malaysian recovered well to make most of the situation.

Following is the quarterfinal line up:

Siti Munirah Jusoh (Mas) vs Anaka Alankamony (Ind),

Sarah Jane Perry (Eng) vs Victoria Bell (Eng),

Saima Hanny Ibrahim Ahmed (Egy) vs Pusha Devi (Malaysia)

Carrie Ramsey (Eng) vs Joshna Chinappa (Ind).

Results of first round pre-quarterfinal matches:

Siti Munirah Jusoh (1), MAS, def. Saai Meera, IND, 11-4 11-1 12-10 .

Anaka Alankamony, IND, def. Zulhijjah Binti Azan (7), MAS, 9-11 11-0 11-5 4-11 11-8 .

Sarah Jane Perry (3), ENG, def. Jessica Turnbull, AUS, 11-4 11-2 11-6 .

Victroria Bell (8), ENG, def. Lakshya Ragavendran, IND, 11-8 11-3 11-6 .

Salma Hany Ibrahim Ahmed (5), EGY, def. Mariam Ibrahim Metwally, EGY, 11-6 6-11 14-12 10-12 11-5 .

Pushppa Devi (4), MAS, def. Harshit Kaur Jawanda, IND, 11-8 12-10 12-10 .

Carrie Ramsey (6), ENG, def. Ashita Bhengra, IND, 11-5 11-0 11-2 .

Joshna Chinappa (2), IND, def. Nouran Ahmed Gohar, EGY, 11-8 11-9 5-11 11-7

Link of the draw given below

http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draw.aspx?id=C5BFB1A0-AF09-467E-8803-BA72A54B6EFF&draw=7