Shaan Dalal, played brilliantly to take down a higher-ranked Kushagra Singh [17/32] to advance to the Round 2 of the Otters Club Squash Open 2019, Co-Sponsored by Mahindra Rise and played at Otters Club Squash courts on Monday.
2nd Seed Ranjit Singh after his 11-5, 11-5, 11-5 victory over Ajay Deshmukh in the first round of the Otters Club Squash Open 2019.
Unseeded Shaan Dalal took Kushagra Singh by surprise right from the first game with his fast movements and aggressive play. Shaan did not allow Kushagra to settle and pushed him to all corners of the court. He used the drop shots beautifully to take an early lead and made very few mistakes thereafter to close the first game 11-4. Shaan was just warming up in a first game as he launched an all-out attack in the second game and completely dominated Kushagra who had no counters and quietly surrendered to 11-0 defeat. With a 2-0 lead, Shaan was in a comfortable position but realising that he has shaken his opponent, Shaan did not take the foot off the pedal and played with the same energy to take the 3rd game by 11-3 and the match by 11-4, 11-0, 11-3 to advance to the second round.
In another match, Unseeded Shanay Dharod had to fight hard to overpower Abhishek Sonthalia who is seeded in the [17/32] bracket. Shanay had a shaky first game and lost points early but he came back strongly to score back to back winners and take the match deep Shanya kept his nerves in the crunch moments to take the match 11-9. Winning a close game filled Shanay with confidence and he backed himself to attack and win points eventually defeating Abhishek 11-9, 11-5, 11-4 in straight games to advance to the 2nd round.
2nd seed Ranjit Singh of services who travelled from Pune just in time for his match had a solid start to the tournament as he defeated and unseeded Ajay Deshmukh by an identical 11-5, 11-5, 11-5 scoreline to ease into the second round. Top seed Abhishek Pradhan will be seen in action in the second round as he was awarded a walkover.
Men’s Results:
Husain Lunavad bt Anandrao Shinde 6-11, 11-4, 11-9, 11-0; Rohit Kadam bt Satish Sharma 11-5, 11-1, 11-8; Manjeet Gupta bt Kamaldas Mohandas 12-10, 7-11, 11-8, 8-11, 11-8; Shanay Dharod bt Abhishek Sonthalia [17/32] 11-9, 11-5, 11-4; Kunal Singh [9/16] bt Anagha Basu 11-3, 11-2, 11-2; Anshul Goyal [9/16] bt Sanjay Pawar 11-8, 11-4, 11-5; Imran Khan [17/32] bt Pradnesh More 11-4, 11-6, 11-1; Shaan Dalal bt Kushagra Singh [17/32] 11-4, 11-0, 11-3; Neel Joshi [9/16] bt Mahesh Kadam 11-6, 11-5, 11-3; Aishwary Singh [5/8] bt Rohit Kadam 11-5, 11-7, 11-2 ; Pranat Gianchandani bt Varun Johnny [9/16] 11-4, 11-3, 11-5