Favourites ruled the roost in the quarterfinals of the 60th National squash championship at the Calcutta Racket Club here on Friday.
Men’s top seed Saurav Ghosal of Tamil Nadu, found Delhi’s Gaurav Nandrajog an easy meat as he won the encounter easily 11-6, 11-6, 11-7. Second seed Harinder Pal Sandhu of Tamil Nadu, however, had a tough time against Sandeep Jangra of Services.
The well-built army athlete lost the first two games 10-12 and 9-11 before mounting a stiff challenge to take the third game at 13-11. Sandhu, however, proved too good in the fourth with an 11-9 victory for a meeting with third seed Mahesh Mangaonkar of Maharasthra, who made short work of his Statemate Abhinav Sinha at 11-3, 11-6, 11-3.
Ghosal’s semifinal opponent will be Ravi Dixit, also of Tamil Nadu, who tamed Services’ Vikas Jangra 9-11, 11-6, 11-2, 11-7.
The women’s quarterfinals were one-sided matches with the top seed Joshna Chinappa of Tamil Nadu advancing into the semifinals by default. Her Jammu & Kashmir opponent Kiran Katoch failed to turn up.
Second seed Anaka Alankamony of Tamil Nadu outplayed Tamanna of Uttar Pradesh conceding only two points in the third game. The only game that saw contest was between Vrishrutyi Sahni of Maharashtra against Janet Vidhi of Delhi.
It went to full distance as Janet won the first and Vrishrutyi the second. The third was won by Janet and the fourth seed won the fourth before the decider went in favour of Vrishrutyi at 14-12. She will next square up against the top seed.
The results: Quarterfinals: Men: Saurav Ghosal (TN) bt Gaurav Nandrajog (Del) 11-6, 11-6, 11-7; Ravi Dixit (TN) bt Vikas Jangra (Ser) 9-11, 11-6, 11-2, 11-7; Mahesh Mangaonkar (Mah) bt Abhinav Sinha (Mah) 11-3, 11-6, 11-3; Harinder Pal Sandhu (TN) bt Sandeep Jangra (Ser) 12-10, 11-9, 11-13, 11-9.
Women: Joshna Chinappa (TN) w/o Kiran Katoch (J&K); Vrishrutyi Sahni (Mah) bt Janet Vidhi (Del) 7-11, 11-9, 5-11, 13-11, 14-12; Sachika Ingale (Del) bt Aishwarya Bhattacharya (Mah) 11-4, 11-7, 11-4; Anaka Alankamony (TN) bt Tamanna (UP) 11-0, 11-0, 11-2.
