NSCI All India Open Squash Tournament 2019: Top seed Abhishek Pradhan sails into quarter-finals

Top seed Abhishek Pradhan of Maharashtra had a routine day in office as he recorded back to back wins to advance into the quarter-final round in the men’s event of the 4^th NSCI All India Open (Junior and Senior) Squash Tournament 2019, at the NSCI squash courts on Sunday.

First, the pony-tailed Pradhan, who is the fifth-ranked Indian, proved too superior for Rajasthan’s Chetan Singh Rathore and easily coasted to an 11-4, 11-3 and 11-4 win in just 15 minutes in a second-round match. But, later in the third round, he faced quite a challenge from Ajit Sharma of Services and had to bring out his best to clinch an 11-9, 11-7, 11-7 win in about 30 minutes.

Earlier, Sharma showed plenty of determination as he recovered from a 1-2 deficit to narrowly win the last two games to hand Maharashtra’s Shashi Pandey an 11-9, 5-11, 3-11, 11-8, 11-9 defeat.

Meanwhile, Prithvi Singh and Abhishek Kumar, both of Chandigarh ground out hard-fought second-round victories in the boys’ under-19 event. Prithvi Singh defeated Maharashtra’s Advait Adik 9-11, 12-10, 7-11, 11-6, 11-5, while Kumar got the better of another Maharashtra player Vivaan Jaikishan winning at 11-7, 12-10, 9-11, 10-12 and 11-6.

In an exciting boys’ under-17 encounter, Rohan Potdar of Maharashtra rallied to overcome Tamil Nadu’s Maanas B.K. winning in five grueling games at 8-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-4 and 11-8.

In the two completed matches in the girls’ U-17 competition, Madhya Pradesh’s Yashna Manocha strolled past Iman Jaikishan 11-5, 11-2, 11-3, while in another match, Maharashtra’s Sakshi Karnani beat Khushi Rathore of Madhya Pradesh 11-2, 11-6, 11-3.

Results

Boys’ U-17 (first round): 

Kulvir Sharma beat Atharva Yeole 11-7 11-2 11-6; Arman Darukhanawalla beat Vaiday Adhiraj Singh Patel 11-4 11-2 11-3; Rahul Baitha beat Adhip Shetty 11-4 11-4 11-6; Jay Vaknalli beat Aditya Belwalkar 11-2, 11-3, 11-2; Anurag Thakur beat Yash Kothari 11-1, 11-4, 11-4; Mohit Bhatt beat Ansh Khetan 11-1 11-2 11-2; Athrva Yadav beat Manav Mody 11-3 11-3 11-2; Rohan Potdar beat Maanas B.K. 8-11 11-9 7-11 11-4 11-8; Om Semwal beat Himay Kapadia 11-5 11-9 11-2; Tanay Punjabi beat Saaraansh Sinha 11-2 11-0 11-1; Aakash Gupta beat Dhruv Sampat 11-1 11-3 11-3; Raunak Singh beat Pratinav Deb 11-4 11-7 11-1; Sunny Yadav beat Arin Khot 11-7 11-7 11-5; Akhilesh Kumar beat Yagya Joshi 11-2 11-3 11-8.

Boys’ U-19 (second round): 

Utkarsh Baheti beat R.J. Israel Titus Raja 11-5 11-4, 11-8; Prithvi Singh (CH) beat Advait Adik 9-11 12-10 7-11 11-6 11-5; Deepak Mandal beat Avinash Sahani 11-6 11-6 11-7; Saksham Choudhary beat Vishal Rajbhar 11-7 11-0 11-1; Tushar Shahani beat Aryan Steve Rybin 11-6 11-4 11-1; Diwakar Singh beat Ajay Singh Bhadoria 11-8 11-6 11-8; Jaideep Singh Sethi beat Niraj Kabra 11-5 11-5 5-11 11-6; Yash Fadte beat Suyash Utkarsh 11-1 11-4 11-2; Abhishek Kumar (CH) beat Vivaan Jaikishan 11-7 12-10 9-11 10-12 11-6; Araash Mehta beat Ajay Deshmukh 11-5 11-3 11-8; Suraj Chand beat Sathya Narayanan S. 11-2 11-3 11-6; Shloke Sahay beat Krish Shah 2-11 11-3 11-8 11-6; Karata Dasmahapatra beat Tarun Mammen 11-5 11-5 11-5.

Men’s (second round): 

Abhishek Pradhan beat Chetan Singh Rathore 11-4 11-3 11-4; Ajit Sharma beat Shashi Pandey 11-9 5-11 3-11 11-8 11-9; Abhinav Sinha beat Yashraj Bhargava 11-3 11-2 11-2; Sandeep Jangra beat Rahil Fazelbhoy 11-8 11-6 11-4; Puneet Pareek beat Vaibhav Chauhan 11-8 12-10 11-3; Kunal Singh beat Shardul Gawde 11-0 11-0 11-0; Naveen Jangra beat Farman Khan 11-8 11-5 11-6; Rounak Yadav beat Abhinav Thyagarajan 11-6 11-6 11-9; Mehul Kumar beat Akhil Daswani 11-6 11-4 8-11 11-3; Ashish Keskar beat Ritik Shah 11-1 11-3 11-2; Aishwary Singh beat Sonu Kumar 11-1 11-2 11-5; Akhilesh Kumar Yadav beat Simoria Mayur Jaiswal 11-2 11-1 11-2; Ness Billimoria beat Vicky Gagat 11-3 11-1 8-11 11-3; Abhishek Agarwal beat Aaroh Soni 11-1 11-6 11-6; Rahul Baitha beat Animesh Chug 11-5 11-4 11-2.

Third round: 

Abhishek Pradhan beat Ajit Sharma 11-9 11-7 11-7.

Girls U-15 (first round):

Aaryaa Belsare beat Neelam Rathore 11-5 11-3 11-4; Saisha Gupta beat Tanya Ahuja 11-1 11-2 11-2; Diya Yadav beat Saniya Jaggi 10-12 12-10 11-2 11-4; Archita Singh beat Dhwanee Goyal 11-2 11-3 11-1; Kriyaa J. beat Hinal Nimse 11-4 11-4 11-4; Suhana Chopra beat Anneisha Shah 11-0 11-3 11-2; Prini Jain beat Anugya Doshi 11-1 11-2 11-5; Tagyaa Parakh beat Karen Vinod 11-2 11-2 11-2; Deepika V. beat Mahika Pathania 11-0 11-2 11-0; Maansha Bohra beat Sara Mathur 11-1 11-4 11-5; Khushi Jaspal beat Mannat Shah 11-6 11-7 11-8.

Girls’ U-17 (first round): 

Yashna Manocha beat Iman Jaikishan 11-5 11-2 11-3; Sakshi Karnani beat Khushi Rathore 11-2 11-6 11-3.