While India already have two competitors in the JP Morgan Tournament of Champions in the form of Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal, it found a third contender, this time in the form of 23-year-old Ramit Tandon, who made the cut into the main draw of the competition on Thursday.
Ramit beat Clinton Leeuw of South Africa in the Men’s Qualifying Finals 3-1 to enter the main draw of the tournament, becoming only the second Indian to do so after Saurav Ghosal. On Wednesday, the Indian had defeated World No.22 Ali Farag of Egypt in five cracking games to advance to the second round of the competition.
Reacting to this news, the 255th ranked Indian, who incidentally trains with Leeuw, said that he was a bit nervous prior to the start of the match.
“Practice is practice and this match was especially different. Both of us really wanted to get to the glass court in Grand Central- because of that I was a little nervous.”
Ramit will face the third seed and reigning World Men’s Squash champion Gregory Gaultier of France in the opening round of the competition on the 8th of January.
