Seven Indians in Round 2 of World Junior Squash
On a tough opening day for Indians on Tuesday, Rishi Tandon, Sachika Ingale and Tanvi Khanna posted contrasting victories over their respective opponents while Harshit Kaur Jawanda, Lakshya Ragavendran, Kush Kumar and Deepak Mishra had a first round bye.
Seven Indians have moved into the second round of the World Junior Squash Championship being played in the historic city of Wroclaw, Poland.
On a tough opening day for Indians on Tuesday, Rishi Tandon, Sachika Ingale and Tanvi Khanna posted contrasting victories over their respective opponents while Harshit Kaur Jawanda, Lakshya Ragavendran, Kush Kumar and Deepak Mishra had a first round bye.
Rishi impressed in his 3-1 win over Petr Zatrepalek of Czech Republic. Both exchanged the first two games before the Indian upped the tempo and raced away with the match.
Sachika Ingale had an easy outing against Hayley Hughes of New Zealand and won her match in straight games to set up a second round clash with Grace Mcervale of Australia.
Tanvi also cruised into the next round with an easy 3-0 win over Ayaka Shiraishi of Japan.
However, there was disappointment in store for Madhav Dhingra and Urwashi Joshi who went down fighting in gruelling five setters.
Madhav, coming off a 5th place finish at Dutch Junior Open, fought his heart out against Hungarian Nandor Gergo Papp, eventually falling to a 2-3 defeat in 53 minutes.
Madhav had two match points at 10-8 in the fourth game but Gergo Papp rallied strongly to pull that game out of the bag at 15-13. In the decider, Madhav struggled to keep his length and lost 7-11.
In the women's draw, Urwashi put up a spirited fight against Kayley Leonard of USA but went down 2-3 as the American girl held her nerve on crucial points to knock the Indian youngster out in the first round.
Adya Advani went down tamely against Katie Tutrone of USA in just 19 minutes. Katie was far more consistent in her shot selection to end Adya's campaign in the championship.
Results: Sachika Ingale beat Hayley Hughes (NZL) 11-6 11-3 11-7; Katie Tutrone (USA) beat Adya Advani 11-6 11-4 11-7; Tanvi Khanna beat Ayaka Shiraishi (JPN) 11-5 11-1 11-4; Kayley (USA) beat Urwashi Joshi 11-6 8-11 12-10 8-11 11-9; Rishi Tandon beat Petr Zatrepalek (CZE) 11-7 9-11 11-6 11-3; Nandor (HUN) beat Madhav Dhingra 8-11 11-8 8-11 15-13 11-7.