By IANS,
Chennai : While the big guns blazed away in the ICL Chennai Open Squash tournament, local girl Anwesha Reddy reached the quarter-finals in the women’s singles, here Thursday as also Harinderpal Singh who toppled sixth seed Shamshul Islam Khan of Pakistan to author the day’s big upset.
Anwesha defeated Russian Irian Assal in four games. Down 1-4 in the first, Anwesha started playing aggressively and used her backhand crosscourt flick to great effect to go up two games.
Unforced errors from Anwesha saw Irian win the third game 9-3. However, Anwesha came back strongly to take the fourth in quick time to set up a meeting with Orla Noom.
Meanwhile, Harita Om Prakash was the only non-Women International Squash Players Association (WISPA) member to win her match when she defeated fellow-Indian Surbhi Misra in straight games.
The other seeds had it easy with the Indian junior girls enjoying their experience at their first WISPA event.
In the men’s event, another ICL academy trainee Harinderpal Singh, ranked 143, and who came through the qualifications, defeated Shamshul Islam Khan in an enthralling four-game encounter.
Harinder’s retrieving was exceptional and he troubled Shamshul with his drops. In the final game tie-breaker Harinder hit a forehand drive into the nick and won the final point with a forehand crosscourt volley also into the nick.
Harinder plays the second seed Ritwik in Friday’s quarter-finals. All other seeds progressed into the next round.
The results (seedings in brackets):
PSA Main Draw (first round): (1) Saurav Ghosal bt Naresh Kumar 11-5,11-7,13-11 (45 min); (8) Rob Sutherland (WAL) bt (Q) Graeme Wilson (NZL) 11-4,11-6,11-4 (21 min); (3) Ryan Cuskelly (Aus) bt Zac Alexander 12-10, 11-4, 11-4 (34 min); (5) Dick Lau (HK) bt (Q) Parth Sharma 11-7, 11-7,11-7 (25 min); (7) Max Lee bt Gaurav Nandrajog 12-14, 11-8, 11-1, 12-10 (45 min); (4) Mohd. Ali Reda bt James Snell 11-9, 11-7, 11-7 (34 min); (Q) Harinderpal Sandhu bt (6) Shamshul Islam Khan 12-10, 9-11, 11-1, 13-11 (39 min); (2) Ritwik Bhattacharya bt Ravi Dixit 12-10,11-9,11-1 (29 min).
WISPA Main Draw (first round): (1) Christine Mak (HKG) bt Shriya Khatri 9-2, 9-3,9-2 (21min); (5) Dipika Pallikal bt Swati Muchal 9-0, 9-2, 9-0 (10 min); (3) Orla Noom (NED) bt Saumya Karki 9-1, 7-9, 9-3, 9-1 (24 min); (7) Anwesha Reddy bt Irian Assal(RUS) 9-4, 9-4, 3-9, 9-1 (25 min); Harita Om Prakash bt (8) Surbhi Misra 10-8, 9-5, 9-2 (25 min); (4) Annie Au (HKG) bt Anaka Alankamony 9-4, 9-0, 9-2 (18 min); (6) Birgit Coufal (Aut) bt Sachika Balvani 9-4, 9-4, 9-3 (20mins); (2) Joshna Chinappa bt Aparajitha Balamurukan 9-2, 9-1, 9-0 (10 min).