Tamil Nadu’s Abhay Singh has been a talent waiting to explode for a while. This year, the 21-year-old has shown glimpses of his potential and his eagerness to make it to the Indian men’s team.
He won the British Open under-23 title last month and in February, he upset World No. 79 Shawn Delierre in the first round of the Banker’s Hall tournament in Canada before hurting his knee and retiring midway against Christopher Gordon in the next round.
Not sure of taking part in the SRFI-77th senior National squash championships, Abhay, however, recovered in quick time thanks to good work from Indian Squash Academy’s physio Dimple.
Playing an aggressive game from the start, Abhay got the better of Abhishek Agarwal of Maharashtra 11-7, 11-5, 13-11 in the men’s quarterfinals here on Thursday. He will take on top seed Saurav Ghosal in the last-four.
Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu tamed Yash Fadte of Goa 11-7, 11-2, 11-7 in the last- eight and set up a clash with Abhishek Pradhan, the second seed. Abhishek put it across Gaurav Nandrajog of Delhi 11-6, 11-6, 11-6.
A minor upset came when 18-year-old Sanya Vats from Delhi downed the seasoned and higher seeded Urwashi Joshi of Maharashtra 11-5, 9-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-3 in the women’s quarterfinals.
Sanya will take on the top-seed Joshna Chinappa, who dispatched Sachika Balvani of Maharashtra 11-4, 11-2, 11-4.
Touted as next big hopefuls after Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal Karthik in the women’s category, Tanvi Khanna and Sunayna Kurvilla made it to the semifinals with relative ease.
The most engrossing semifinal on Friday will be the one between Tanvi and Sunayna.
The results (quarterfinals):
Men: Saurav Ghosal (TN) bt Rutvik Rau (Mah) 11-3, 11-3, 11-1; Abhay Singh (TN) bt Abhishek Agarwal (Mah) 11-7, 11-5, 13-11; Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (TN) bt Yash Fadte (Goa) 11-7, 11-2, 11-7; Abhishek Pradhan (Mah) bt Gaurav Nandrajog (Del) 11-6, 11-6, 11-6.
Women: Joshana Chinappa (TN) bt Sachika Balvani (Mah) 11-4, 11-2, 11-4; Sanya Vats (Del) bt Urwashi Joshi (Mah) 11-5, 9-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-3; Tanvi Khanna (Del) bt Aparajitha Balamurukan (TN) 11-5, 11-3, 11-8; Sunayna Kuruvilla (TN) bt Sanika Choudhari (Mah) 11-5, 11-2, 12-10.
