19-year-old Indian squash player Sandeep Ramachandran is making rapid strides on the PSA circuit. The Bahrain-born youngster reached the quarter-finals of the $5,000 Tasmanian Open in Devonport, Australia on Friday.
Ramachandran, who is a qualifier at this tournament, put up a gutsy display to upset the eighth seed and local hope Joel Luca, 12-10, 12-10, 11-7 in just 28 minutes. The World No. 273 will next meet the second seed Rhys Dowling – a player ranked 133 places above him – for a place in the semi-finals.
The Indian started the tournament with two solid wins in the qualifying rounds. In the first round, he accounted for Australia’s Jack Hudson 11-3, 11-7, 11-2 and followed it up with an 11-9, 11-7, 11-4 victory over another Australian Matthew McConnell.
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Sandeep is currently coached by the Dubai-based Maqbool Khawaja and is one of the brightest young talents around. He put up a giant-killing performance at the Sub-junior Nationals last year in the U-19 category to reach the final where he lost to Velavan Senthilkumar.
He has been playing regularly on the PSA Tour since January and his steady progress has seen him break into the top 300 this June for the first time in his career.
This is his second PSA quarter-final in a row after reaching the last-eight at the NSW Open in Sydney just a little over a week back.
