Goa’s 16-year-old Yash Fadte’s marathon effort helped him prevail over the 3rd seed Abhishek Agarwal in the quarter-final round of the 43rd Maharashtra State Men’s Squash tournament, organised under the aegis of SRFI and SRAM, sponsored by JSW and Raheja Vivarea and played at the Bombay Gymkhana glass-back squash courts on Wednesday.
Yash Fadte of Goa defeated 3rd seed Abhishek Agarwal in the quarter-finals of the 43rd Maharashtra State Men’s Squash tournament, organised under the aegis of SRFI and SRAM.
Yash had an easy start as he won the first game 11-2 but Abhishek was quick to make a comeback and took the second game 11-4. Yash once again showed commitment to bounce back with a 11-7 victory in the third game, but the teenager was not able maintain consistency and lost the penultimate game 9-11. With the match tied at 2 games all it was anyone’s match, however, Yash, who came into the tournament with a string of successes was able to maintain the composure required to beat the 3rd seed, winning the decider 11-8 to advance to the semis. Yash will face his biggest challenge yet when he plays the top seed Mahesh Mangaonkar .
Meanwhile Mahesh eased into the semis, making few mistakes on his way to an 11-7, 11-5, 11-2 victory over Vijay Kumar of Chennai. Meanwhile, number 2 seed Abhishek Pradhan defeated Ranjit Singh with an identical scoreline of 11-2, 11-7, 11-5.
Men’s Quarter Final Results
Mahesh Mangaonkar [1] bt Vijay Kumar [9/16] 11-7 11-5 11-2; Yash Fadte [9/16] bt Abhishek Agarwal [3]11-2 4-11 11-7 9-11 11-8; Gaurav Nandrajog [4] bt Sandeep Jangra 13-11 11-8 11-3; Abhishek Pradhan [2] bt Ranjit Singh 11-2 11-7 11-5