Saksham Chodhary knocked out third seed Ranjit Singh 11-2, 13-11, 11-3 in the HCL 75th National squash championships at the HCL Hub here on Thursday.
In the glass court set on the lawns of the HCL headquarters, the players literally felt the heat. In fact, the organisers opted to reschedule the start of Friday’s matches to late afternoon, accepting the demand for better playing conditions.
It was not easy for the players to settle down and those who were sharp and well prepared, capitalised on the situation like the way Saksham did in setting up a quarterfinal against Abhishek Pradhan.
One of the lower seeds, Jamal Sakib, fought hard before losing to Vikas Mehra in four games. Vikas will challenge second seed and title aspirant Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu.
Strong start
Top seed Mahesh Mangaonkar got off to a strong start against Naveen Jangra. He will play Vijay Kumar, who got a walkover as Ravi Dixit failed to report for his match.
In the women’s section, only two players, top seed Joshana Chinappa and second seed Urvashi Joshi got to play their matches on the glass court, while the rest tackled their opponents at the Siri Fort squash courts.
It was a cakewalk for Joshana against Sunidhi Pandey who made it a point to take a photo with the champion after the match, while Urwashi tamed left-hander Divyakriti Singh.
The results (pre-quarterfinals):
Men: Mahesh Mangaonkar bt Naveen Jangra 11-4, 11-5, 11-2; Vijay Kumar w/o Ravi Dixit; Abhishek Pradhan bt Rahul Baitha 11-6, 11-6, 11-9; Saksham Choudhary bt Ranjit Singh 11-2, 13-11, 11-3; Vikram Malhotra bt Guhan Senthilkumar 11-6, 11-2, 11-3; Gaurav Nandrajog bt Suhail Kapur 11-4, 12-10, 11-5; Vikas Mehra bt Jamal Sakib 11-6, 14-12, 12-14, 11-8; Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu bt Ashish Patel 11-5, 11-3, 11-5.
Women: Joshana Chinappa bt Sunidh Pandey 11-0, 11-2, 11-1; Tanvi Khanna bt Sunayna Kuruvilla 11-6, 11-4, 9-11, 11-6; Sachika Balvani bt Janet Vidhi 11-9, 11-7, 11-6; Sanya Vats bt Sachika Ingale 11-13, 11-6, 11-6, 4-11, 11-7; Aparajitha Balamurugan bt Vasudha Surange 11-3, 11-3, 11-4; Mayuri Namasivayam bt Anna Avasthi 11-4, 11-2, 11-6; Sanika Choudhari bt Aaradhana Kasturiraj 11-6, 11-4, 11-4; Urwashi Joshi bt Divyakriti Singh 11-1, 11-5, 11-4.
