Easy sailing for big guns

Easy sailing for big guns

Chennai, Oct 11: Much of the `action' was confined to off the court in the Indian Cements Sub-junior and Junior National squash championship at the SDATN complex on Tuesday.

It was another smooth day for the aspirants, the semifinalists spotted in all sections. The little drama came late in the day (see box).

Bikram Uberoi and Priyanka Yadav, top seeds in the boys and girls U-19, could have done with better opposition than what they encountered. Neither raised a sweat with no real need to galvanise the pace. The only time TN girl Vaidehi Reddy stretched was in retrieving the ball, Divya Rajan a little too consistent in hitting the tin.

Supriya Balsekar had to bring her best to put out Rachita Vora in three hard-fought games. Down 1-5 in the opener, Supriya knew she had a job at hand. It was percentage stuff from her which gave the distinct edge when it mattered. Rachita's best moments were when she had two game balls in the third.

The steely resolved Joshna Chinnappa was too sharp for Rhea Bhandare. Joshna's racquet did all the talking with the confidence of the one who knew at what point to step up the accelerator. Each time Rhea tried to make it look like a contest, Joshna sheepishly put away the threat. A little arrogantly one may add, the allowance which the winners seem to take it as a right.

Results - Boys U-19 QF: Bikram Uberoi (Mah) bt Varun Kataruka (Del) 9-4, 9-2, 9-2; Sahil Vora (Mah) bt Neeravtomar (Del) 9-6, 9-6, 9-7; Abhimanu Jain (Del) bt Tejveer Singh (Mah) 9-5, 9-5, 10-8; Junaidnathani (Mah) bt Adithya Vikaram Singh (Raj) 9-1, 9-0, 5-9, 9-2.

Boys U-17 QF: Supreet Singh (Mah) bt Anurag Gill (Mah) 9-5, 9-1, 4-9, 9-4; Gaurav Nandrajog (Del) bt Amjad Khan (Del) 9-4, 9-6, 9-4; Vishal Raj Kapoor (Mah) bt Karan Singh (Del) 9-3, 4-9, 9-2, 9-0; Yashvardhan Singh (MP) bt Aishwarya Singh (MP) 9-1, 9-4, 9-2.

Boys U-15 QF: Saurav Ghosal (WB) bt Rishab Singhvi (Mah) 9-1, 9-1, 9-3; Aditya Manjrekar (Mah) bt Abhimanu Baweja (MP) 9-7, 7-9, 9-6, 2-9, 9-5; Sidharth Samantaray (Mah) bt Sarvesh Chauhan (Mah) 9-1, 9-2, 9-1; Vikas Jangra (Mah) bt Prateek Patni (MP) 10-8, 6-9, 7-9, 9-5, 9-2.

Boys U-13 QF: Imran Khan (Del) bt Vinayak Shetty (TN) 9-4, 9-3, 9-1; Manek Mathur (Mah) bt Jay Bhagat (Mah) 9-4, 9-4, 9-2; Fateh Singh (MP) bt Nikhil Seth (Mah) 9-3, 9-5, 10-8; 4 Sandeep Jangra (Mah) bt Nikhil Sharma 9-3, 9-4, 9-0.

Boys U-11 QF: Vikram Malhotra (Mah) bt Anup Kumar Sharma 9-2, 9-1, 9-0; Jaydalal (Mah) bt Prashant Kumar (TN) 9-6, 9-2, 9-1; Nitin Chauhan (Mah) bt Yuvraj Pathak (MP) 9-4, 9-4, 9-4; Vir Seth (Mah) bt P Karthik (TN) 9-6, 9-4, 9-0.

Girls U-15 QF: Alisha Mashruwala (Mah) bt Sunita Kuruvilla 9-0, 9-0, 9-0; Aditi Baweja (MP) bt Dipika Rao (TN) 9-0, 9-0, 9-1; Liana Deboo (Mah) bt Sweta Singh (Mah) 9-2, 9-0, 9-0; 4. Natasha Lall (Mum) bt B Aarthi (TN) 9-0, 9-0, 9-0.

Girls U-19 QF: Priyanka Yadav (Mah) bt Kanika Premnarayan 9-3, 9-3, 9-3; Joshna chinappa (TN) bt Rhea Bhandare (Mah) 9-2, 9-4, 9-3; Supriya Balsekar (Mah) bt Rachita Vora (Mah) 9-7, 9-3, 10-8; Vaidehi Reddy (TN) bt Divya Rajan 9-1, 9-0, 9-1.