Upsets galore at Willingdon
Unseeded Aishwarya Khubchandani played brilliantly and held her nerves to come back from a game deficit to defeat 8th seed Urwashi Joshi 11-13, 11-3, 11-6, 11-7 in the round second of the HCL-SRFI India Tour played at the Willingdon Sports Club Squash courts here on Thursday.
The action filled day-two witnessed lot of nail biting and exhilarating moments, top seed Rachel Arnold dominated the unseeded Abhishekha Shannon 11-3, 11-5, 11-7 while sixth seed Tanvi Khanna overcame her Indian opponent Sachika Balvani defeating her 11-9, 11-4, 11-7 to enter the quarterfinals.
In the men’s tie, second seed Aditya Jagtap had an easy outing as he breezed past Aadit Zaveri 11-4, 11-4,
Results 11-5 to advance to the quarters. Meanwhile, wild card Abhishek Agarwal’s campaign was off to a flying start as he tamed third seed Bernat Jaume of Spain to
Rachel Arnold [1] (MAS) bt Abhisheka Shannon (IND)11-3, 11-5, 11-7; Hana Ramadan [7] (EGY) bt Nour Aboulmakarim (EGY) 11-7, 11-5, 11-6; [8] Ondrej Uherka (CZE) bt Harley Lam (HKG)11-9, 11-9, 11-9; Anna Kimberley [3] (ENG) v Pooja Arthi (IND)11-3, 11-4, 11-2; Tanvi Khanna [6] (IND) bt Sachika Balvani (IND)11-9, 114, 11-7; Aishwarya Khubchandani (IND) bt Urwashi Joshi [8] (IND)11-13, 11-3, 11-6, 11-7; Ooi Kah Yan make the cut into the last eight of the championship.
Abhishek had a great start to the tie taking the first two games 11-6, 11-9 and was poised to take the match in straight games but Bernat accelerated at the right time to score crucial points and take the 3rd game by 11-5. Bernat started to intercept Abhishek’s moves very well and did not allow him any room to score quick points taking the 4th game by an identical 11-5 margin. Abhishek came back strongly after the break and dominated the final game winning by a huge 11-3 margin and winning the tie with 11-6, 11-9, 511, 5-11, 11-3 score line.
In another match, unseeded Abhay Singh got the better of fifth seed Martin Svec of Czech Republic 11-8, 11-1, 11-6 to advance to the quarters and setup a clash against second ranked Aditya Jagtap.
Aishwarya downs Urwashi; wild card Abhishek stuns seeded Bernat
(MAS)[5] bt Aparajitha Balamurukan (IND) 9-11, 115, 11-3, 11-6
Aditya Jagtap [2] (IND) bt Aadit Zaveri (IND)11-4, 11-4, 11-5; Abhay Singh (IND) bt Martin Svec [5] (CZE)11-8, 11-1, 11-6; Bernat Jaume [3] (ESP) lost to [WC] Abhishek Agarwal (IND)6-11, 9-11, 11-5, 11-5, 3-11; Shady El Sherbiny (EGY) bt Angus Gillams [6] (SCO) 8-11, 3-11, 5-11; Tomotaka Endo (JPN) [7] bt Anthony Rogal (ENG) 11-6, 11-7, 9-11, 11-1