Aishwarya Khubchandani fought hard to secure an upset victory over 2nd seed Sachika Balvani 11-13, 11-4, 11-7, 11-7 and advance to the quarterfinals of the Otters Club Vedanta Squash Open, Organized by 5 Sports, in association with Otters Club at their glass-back squash courts on Wednesday. The Otters Club Vedanta Squash Open is a PSA satellite event and a 3-Star tournament on the Indian Junior squash circuit.
Aishwarya Khubchandani after her 11-3, 11-4, 11-7, 11-7 upset win over 2nd seed Sachika Balvani in the 3rd round match of the Otters Club Vedanta Squash Open, Organized by 5 Sports, in association with Otters Club at their glass-back squash courts on Wednesday
Aishwarya who is unseeded in the women’s draw looked confident in her approach and was leading the 1st game at 7-5. Aishwarya made a few unforced errors which helped Sachika get back into the game. With nothing separating the two the game went into an 11-11 tiebreaker. Sachika used her experience to score back to back winners to take the first game 13-11. Aishwarya shrugged off her first game loss and dominated the rest of games making very few mistakes to win the tie 11-13,11-4, 11-7, 11-7 and advance to the quarters. In another match 3rd seed Sanya Vats breezed past unseeded Ankita Patil securing an 11-0, 11-0, 11-1 victory.
In the Boys U-19 round, Veer Chotrani had a solid start to his campaign as he ran through Rithik J defeating him 11-4, 11-3, 11-6 in the round of 32. Veer took the momentum of his first game and started his pre-quarters with the same aggressive intent. Veer did not even break a sweat in his 11-4, 11-3, 11-5 victory over Ajay Singh Bhadoria to advance to the quarters where he will be up against Advait Adik who is also having a great run as he defeated a higher ranked Vivaan Jaikishan 11-4, 11-5, 11-3 to advance to the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, Tushar Shahani had a great day as he won both his Men’s and Boy’s U-19 match to improve his chances of a double victory in the tournament. The U-19 match was a walk in the park for this talented 18-year-old from Mumbai as he crushed his opponent Niraj Kabra on his way to an identical 11-1, 11-1, 11-1 straight games victory to advance to the quarters. In the Men’s round of 32, Tushar Shahani was up against a higher ranked Vicky Gagat who is seeded in the [9/16] bracket. Vicky put up a fight but could not produce a match-winning performance as Tushar edged past Vicky to an 11-3, 11-7, 11-8 victory to advance to the 4th round.
Results Women Round of 16
Aishwarya Khubchandani bt Sachika Balvani [2] 11-13, 11-4, 11-7, 11-7;Radhika Rathore [5/8] bt Priya Gupta 11-5 11-3 12-10; Sanya Vats [3/4] bt Ankita Patil1 1-0 11-0 11-1
Results Boys U-19 Round 3
Veer Chotrani [1] bt Ajay Singh Bhadoria [9/16] 11-4, 11-3, 11-5; Tushar Shahani [2] bt Niraj Kabra 11-1, 11-1, 11-1; Advait Adik [9/16] bt Vivaan Jaikishan [5/8] 11-4 11-5 11-3; Arnaav Sareen bt Tarun Gusain [9/16]11-3 11-2 11-5 ;Neel Joshi bt Shlok Makhija [9/16] 11-3 11-4 11-2;
Results Men’s Round 3
Tushar Shahani bt Vicky Gagat [17/32] 11-3 11-7 11-8; Ravi Dixit bt Guhan Senthilkumar [5/8] 11-9 11-6 11-7; Neel Joshi [17/32] bt Ashish Keskar [9/16] 11-6 11-2 11-8; Ch Arun Kumar [9/16] bt Puminder Kumar [17/32] 11-6 11-6 11-9 ; Ranjit Singh [2] bt Deva Ram Choudhary [17/32] 11-2 11-3 11-5