Indian Open Squash: Akanksha Salunkhe, Cheng Nga Ching enter quarters

Akanksha Salunkhe

Chennai, Aug 28 (IANS) The top two seeds Akanksha Salunkhe and Cheng Nga Ching (Hong Kong) set the trend for the day with easy victories in the Girls Under-15 category en route to the quarter-finals in the Indian Open junior squash tournament here Wednesday.

Joining the duo in the quarter-finals was Lui Hin Lam from Hong Kong who won her match in three games against 3-4 seeded Shamika Reddy, but Malaysia’s Lin Wen Li, seeded in the 5-8 group, went down to Koel Shankar 1-3.

In the boys’ Under-13 section, Malaysia’s Mohd. Hafiz Zhafri, the top seed, won both his matches to storm in the quarter-finals that will be played Thursday.

The other top seeded players to also qualify for the round of eight included Navaneet Prabhu (B-11), Adithya Raghavan (B-15), Sandeep Ramachandran (B-17) and favourite Kush Kumar (B-19).

The results (pre-quarter-finals):

BOYS – Under-11: 1-Navaneeth Prabhu bt Mohit Bhatt 11-1 11-3 11-6; Mahanshu Gupta bt Ayaan Vaid 11-3 11-1 11-0; Kanhav Nanavati bt Siva Dharshan 12-10 11-7 11-7; 3-Druv Vazirani bt Lakshit Bohra 11-6 8-11 11-2 11-9; 4-Tanay Punjabi bt Ameeshenraj Chandran (Malaysia) 11-1 11-5 11-5; Athrva Yadav bt Shreemann Raghavan 11-9 4-11 12-10 11-9; Yash Salunkhe bt Parthiv N Yagnesh 11-8 11-3 11-4; 2-Neel Joshi bt Aryan Khandelwal 11-4 11-8 11-2.

Under-13: 1-Mohd. Hafiz Zhafri (Malaysia) bt Niel Sadarangani (Hong Kong) 11-7 11-9 11-5; Yashwanth Ragav bt Ansh Punjabi 11-9 11-6 11-3; Saksham Choudhary bt Ansh Shetty 7-11 11-5 11-3 11-5; 3-Tushar Shahani bt Kunal Singh 11-1 11-5 11-6; 4-Utkarsh Baheti bt Keshav Pillai 11-3 11-5 11-2; Yash Fadte bt Pranav N Visvesh 11-9 11-8 12-10; Rahul Baitha bt Advait Adik 11-5 11-6 5-11 11-2; 2-Veer Chotrani bt Shlok Makhija 11-6 11-7 11-5.

Under-15: 1-Adhitya Raghavan bt Dev Vazirani 11-6 11-6 14-12; Yohann Surti bt Chaitanya Shah 8-11 12-10 8-11 11-9 11-6; Krish Kapur bt Rahil Peris 11-3 11-4 11-3; 3-Aryaman Adik bt Siddhant Iyer 11-5 9-11 11-8 6-11 11-8; 4-Vikas Mehra bt RA Charaniyaselvan 8-11 11-6 11-3 11-6; Yash Bhargava bt Aryan Parekh 11-9 11-4 11-4; Abhay Singh bt Aman Kumbhani 11-9 11-5 7-11 13-15 11-9; 2-Robin Singh Mann bt Ramit Bhargava 11-4 11-2 11-7.

Under-17: 1-Sandeep Ramachandran bt Siddarth Choudhary 11-4 8-11 11-6 11-8; Rahul Sehrawat bt Jasmer Singh 11-4 11-6 11-9; Sandeep Paswan bt Pranav Bassi 11-5 11-7 11-7; 3-Yohan Pandole bt Mradul Agrawal 11-5 11-5 10-12 11-8; 4-Aishwary Singh bt Aseem Mehra 11-7 11-7 11-5; Mudit Pant bt Vedant Baheti 11-6 11-7 11-6; Siddharth Singh bt Divyanshu Sharma 11-7 11-9 11-6; 2-Velavan Senthil Kumar bt Rishabh Agarwal 11-3 11-5 11-6.

Under-19: 1-Kush Kumar bt Puneet Pareek 11-4 11-1 11-8; Arjun Kochhar bt Hiteshwar Singh Riar 11-5 11-6 11-3; Ankit Yashen Acharya bt Vijay Kumar 11-3 11-7 11-5; 3-Abhimanyu Shah bt Vaarish Sawlani 11-3 11-3 11-4; 4-Ranvijay Singh bt Jitender Lalwani 11-1 11-6 11-2; Madhav Dhingra bt Sanjeev Sridharan 11-4 11-2 11-1; Guhan Senthil Kumar bt Sarthak Tongia, 11-3 11-7 11-9; 2-Deepak Mishra bt Shashwat Mehrotra 11-3 11-2 11-3.

GIRLS – Under-15: 1-Akanksha Salunkhe bt Sanika Choudhari 11-4 11-6 11-5; Koel Shankar bt Lai Wen Li (Malaysia) 7-11 12-10 11-2 11-6; Vedika Arun bt Diya Joukani (NZ) 9-11 12-10 12-10 11-2; Lui Hiu Lam (Hong Kong) bt 3-Shamika Reddy 11-7 11-7 11-8; 4-Nehaarika Balamurukan bt Mahima Gupta 11-7 11-3 11-4; Nikita Joshi bt Aakanksha Rao 11-3 11-4 11-6; Sunayna Kuruvilla bt Janvi Rathore 11-5 11-7 11-2; 2-Cheng Nga Ching (Hong Kong) bt Shrishti Nagar 11-3 11-2 11-5.