National Circuit Squash: Seeded players knocked out by underdogs
It was high octane stuff at the glass backed courts of the NSCI on Saturday as two seeded players were shown the door in the men’s round of 32 matches at the 6th Cello NSCI Open National Circuit squash tournament, hosted by NSCI at their glass backed squash courts, here, on Saturday. The tournament is co-sponsored by Rubicon Consumer Healthcare and Hbits.
With the high humidity not making their task any easier, Karnataka’s Pradeep Chaudhari and Maharashtra’s Avinash Yadav, both seeded in 9/16 category, made early exits, losing to Delhi’s unseeded Harshit Jain and Maharashtra’s Aran Thwani respectively. Chaudhari fought gamely against Jain, but mistakes at crucial junctures saw him lose a close match at 12-14, 17-19, 11-7, 11-13. Yadav and Thawani slugged it out for five games before Thawani prevailed 11-9, 12-10, 6-11, 9-1,11-7. Meanwhile, Maharashtra’s top seed Rahul Baitha hardly broke a sweat before getting the better of Dhruv Jaitly 11-5, 11-5, 11-8 to advance.
Maharashtra’s unseeded Rahini Chheda also made her mark in the Girls U-11 when she defeated Delhi’s India Karan Vadehra in a hard fought five-game encounter.
India, the Delhi girl, seeded in the 9/16 bracket seemed on course to win the match after pulling back from two games down to level scores, but Rahini, who trains at the NSCI under coach A I Singh, was more than equal to the task and kept her wits in the decider to prevail 11-8, 11-7, 9-11, 8-11, 11-8.
Results:
Men’s (Round of 32): Rahul Baitha (1) (MH) bt Dhruv Jaitly (MH) 11-5,11-5, 11-8; Vaibhav Chauhan (3/4) (SC) bt Sadashiv Shingawa (MH) 11-4, 11-5, 11-4; Aran Thawani (MH) bt Avinash Yadav (9/16) (MH) 11-9, 12-10, 6-11, 9-11, 11-7; Harshit Jain (DL) bt Pradeep Chaudhari (9/16) (KA) 14-12, 19-17, 7-11, 13-11.
Boys U-19 (Round of 32): Tanish Vaidya (MH) bt Dhruv Kumar Gangashetty (TS) 12-10, 9-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-5; Vivaan Bhatia (MH) bt Lakshya Motial (MH) 11-9, 11-7, 11-7; Tavneet Singh Mundra (9/16) (MP) bt Aman Nayyar (MH) 11-3, 11-5, 11-7; Prakash Aujhi (MH) bt Amit Gupta (9/16) (MH) 11-2, 11-5, 11-4.
Boys U-11 (Round of 32): Prabhav Bajoria (1) (RJ) bt Saansh Malhotra (MH) 11-0, 11-3, 11-0; Aaditya Shah (3/4) (MH) bt Ahaan Shah (MH) 11-1, 11-1, 11-1; Ayaan Arambhan (5/8) (MH) bt Veer Vohra (MH) 11-2, 11-2, 11-3; Parshuram Lachaka (5/8) (MH) bt Kalp Hiteshkumar (MH) 11-5, 11-1, 11-2.
Girls U-11 (Round of 32): Rahini Chheda (MH) bt India Karan vadehra (9/16) (DL) 11-8, 11-7, 9-11, 8-11, 11-8; Sarika Balu Vir (5/8) (MH) bt Aditi Singh (MH) 11-2, 11-3, 11-4; Miraya Trehan (9/16) (MH) bt Sanvi Nishant (MH) 11-3, 11-5, 11-5; Ruhi Lodha (MH) bt Heerat Kaushal (MH) 11-7, 12-10, 5-11, 11-8.
