Abhishek Pradhan beat Abhay Singh, the top-seed, 11-8, 11-6, 11-6 in just 24 minutes to progress to the semifinals of the HCL-SRFI Indian Tour squash tournament, a PSA Challenger Tour-10 event, at the ISA courts in Chennai on Tuesday.
Abhay was not at his usual best. He was subdued, for the most part, lacking in intensity and fighting spirit. “I was expecting a tougher battle, and in fact, the last time we met at the Maharashtra Open State closed Satellite tournament in 2018, I beat him in five games,” said Abhishek, who tested Covid-19 positive when he came to play in the PSA Challenger tournament in March-April this year in Chennai.
However, it was smooth sailing for top seed Sunayna Kuruvilla in the women’s section. Kuruvilla beat fifth seed Urwashi Joshi 17-15, 11-6, 11-3 in the quarterfinals.
Harinderpal Singh Sandhu, the second seed, conceded after complaining of groin pain. He was trailing 4-9 in the first game against S. Velavan in the men's quarterfinals.
Pradhan, seeded sixth, was very solid from the backcourt, seldom making any unforced errors. Though he didn’t come up with many drop shots, his double boasts fetched him quite a few points, especially in the third game.
Earlier, Akshaya Sri continued her dream run, with an authoritative 11-9, 11-8, 11-2 win over Sachika Balvani, the third seed.
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