HCL-SRFI Indian squash tour: Akshaya Sri hogs the limelight

Akshaya Sri defeats higher-ranked Radhika Rathore and sixth-seeded Sanika Choudhari to move into the last eight.

Akshaya Sri (foreground) got past Sanika Choudhari in the women's pre-quarterfinals of the HCL-SRFI Indian Tour in Chennai on Monday. - SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Akshaya Sri hogged the limelight in the HCL-SRFI Indian squash tour Chennai Leg-3 at the ISA courts here on Monday.

The 16-year-old, an ISA trainee, defeated higher-ranked Radhika Rathore in the first round in the morning and came back to put it across the sixth-seeded Sanika Choudhari 8-11, 11-2, 11-8, 11-5 in the evening. Akshaya will take on Sachika Balvani, the third seed, in the last-eight clash.

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Akshaya pushed Sanika to the corners with calculated drives from the back of the court and often caught Sanika deep on the backhand. “I am very happy that I’ve put in my best performance yet in only my second PSA event,” said Akshaya.

The results (pre-quarterfinals) Men : Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu bt Jaideep Sethi 11-8, 4-11, 11-6, 10-12, 12-10; Velavan Senthilkumar bt Tarun Mammen 11-2, 11-4, 11-6; Kanhav Nanavati bt Rounak Yadav 12-10, 11-8, 11-6; Abhishek Agarwal bt Jamal Sakib 11-9, 11-6, 11-8; Aadit Zaveri bt Yuvraj Wadhwani 11-9, 11-4, 11-5; Rahul Baitha bt Suraj Chand 11-4, 8-11, 11-5, 2-11, 11-8; Abhishek Pradhan bt Mohit Bhatt 11-7, 11-9, 11-8; Abhay Singh bt Navaneeth Prabhu 12-10, 15-13, 11-6. Women : Sunayna Kuruvilla bt Shameena Riaz 11-3, 11-4, 11-3; Urwashi Joshi bt Radhika Suthanthira Seelan 11-5, 4-11, 5-11, 11-4, 12-10; Akshaya Sri bt Sanika Choudhari 8-11, 11-2, 11-8, 11-5; Sachika Balvani bt Aaradhana Kasturiraj 11-6, 11-2, 11-1; Aparajitha Balamurukan bt Navya Gupta 11-2, 11-4, 11-3; Abhisheka Shannon bt Anjali Semwal 12-10, 12-10, 11-9; Janet Vidhi bt Sunita Patel 11-6, 11-9, 2-11, 11-5; Tanvi Khanna bt R. Pooja Arthi 11-3, 11-7, 11-5.