79th National Squash C’ship: Anahat Singh beats Pooja, Diya to enter semifinals

Top seed Tanvi Khanna (Delhi) also had seemingly easy outings as she beat Tanishka Jain (Maharashtra) 11-7, 11-5, 11-1 in the round of 16 and Shameena Riaz (Tamil Nadu) 11-5, 11-4, 11-4 in the quarterfinal.

Second seed Anahat Singh beat R. Pooja Arthi 11-6, 11-8, 11-4 in the women’s round-of-16 match. | Photo Credit: Velankanni Raj B/The Hindu

Second seed Anahat Singh (Delhi) defeated Pooja Arthi (Tamil Nadu) 11-6, 11-8, 11-4 and Diya Yadav (Karnataka) 11-7, 11-2, 11-2 in the round-of-16 and quarterfinal matches to make it to the women’s semifinals of the 79th National squash championships at the Indian Squash and Triathlon Academy (ISTA) here on Tuesday.

Top seed Tanvi Khanna (Delhi) also had seemingly easy outings as she beat Tanishka Jain (Maharashtra) 11-7, 11-5, 11-1 in the round of 16 and Shameena Riaz (Tamil Nadu) 11-5, 11-4, 11-4 in the quarterfinal.

In the men’s quarterfinals, Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (Tamil Nadu) claimed a straight sets win, 11-9, 11-7, 11-9, over Veer Chotrani (Maharashtra).

Veer remarkably saved four match points in the third game before Harinder closed out the match.

“I feel very relieved. I have only practised with Veer, but not played against him in a match. So, it was a bit new. And he’s coming from America with a good number of wins. He was obviously high on confidence.

“I just slowed down a bit (in the third game). I took it a little bit easy, lost a little bit of concentration. And that happens when the court is a bit colder. In the glass court, if you take the ball in the front in cold conditions, it pays off for whoever does it well. The ball doesn’t come back as much. And he did quite well then,” said Harinder after the match.

Top seed Abhay Singh (Tamil Nadu) brushed aside Guhan Senthilkumar (Tamil Nadu) 11-2, 11-2, 11-5.

The results:

Men: Quarterfinals: Abhay Singh (TN) bt Guhan Senthilkumar (TN) 11-2, 11-2, 11-5; Suraj Chand (MH) bt Vaibhav Chauhan (SC) 11-3, 11-8, 11-7; Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (TN) bt Veer Chotrani (MH) 11-9, 11-7, 11-9; Velavan Senthilkumar (TN) bt Vedant Patel (GJ) 11-3, 11-4, 11-7.

Women: Round of 16: Tanvi Khanna (DL) bt Tanishka Jain (MH) 11-7, 11-5, 11-1; Shameena Riaz (TN) bt Mahak Talati (MP) 11-2, 11-1, 11-4; Rathika Suthanthira Seelan (TN) bt Nirupama Dubey (MH) 11-8, 11-4, 11-3; Janet Vidhi (MH) bt Ananya Narayanan (TN) 11-8, 11-5, 8-11, 14-12; Urwashi Joshi (MH) bt Aryaa Dwivedi (TS) 11-3, 11-4, 11-4; Sunita Patel (MH) bt Reiva Nimbalkar (MH) 11-7, 11-9, 11-4; Diya Yadav (KA) bt Unnati Tripathi (UP) 6-11, 11-6, 12-10, 11-6; Anahat Singh (DL) bt R. Pooja Arthi (TN) 11-6, 11-8, 11-4.

Quarterfinals: Tanvi Khanna bt Shameena Riaz 11-5, 11-4, 11-4; Rathika Suthanthira Seelan bt Janet Vidhi 11-4, 11-6, 11-2; Urwashi Joshi bt Sunita Patel 5-11, 11-6, 11-4, 11-2; Anahat Singh bt Diya Yadav 11-7, 11-2, 11-2.