Top seed Tin Yan Lau from Hong Kong fought back nerves to quash a spirited challenge from Maharashtra’s Aryaa Ogale 3-2 in a tense girls’ under-15 quarter-final match in the Rs 6.5 lakh prize-money NSCI Indian Classic Junior Open Squash Championship 2016, an SRFI 4-Star sanctioned and an ASF Silver event, and which is being conducted and hosted by NSCI at their glass-back courts on Friday morning.
Tin Yan Lau
The Hong Kong girl Tin Yan exhibited a wide range of strokes and played some fine deceptive shots, but was unable to hold her nerves and struggled against the Mumbai-based Aryaa, who bravely chased every ball and managed to keep the rallies long and to put up a strong fight. But after the scores were level at 2-all, Tin Yan finally managed to come to grips with her game in the decider and slowly but steadily gained the lead. Aryaa seemed to lose focus and committed a couple of mistakes, even hitting the tin from the front court as Tin Yan went on to win the game and wrap up the match at 9-11, 11-6, 9-11, 11-4, 11-8 in over 43 minutes.
Sin Yuk
On the side court, Tin Yan’s compatriot Sin Yuk Chan faced little problems as she quickly disposed off Delhi’s Megha Bhatia the joint third-fourth seed in straight games, winning at 11-6, 11-7, 11-0 in just 20 minutes. In the semi-final, Sin Yuk will run in to Maharashtra’s Avani Nagar who stunned second seed Samita S of Tamil Nadu 3-2 (11-6, 8-11, 12-10, 6-11, 11-8).
Meanwhile, the top two seeds in the boys’ under-15 category, Yash Fadte of Goa and Neel Joshi of Maharashtra comfortable progressed to the semi-finals. In quarter-final encounters, the number one seed, Yash tamed Sankalp Anand of Delhi 11-8, 11-8, 11-6, while second-seeded Neel Joshi sidelined Chandigarh’s Shivamraaj Gulati in four games at 13-11, 11-6, 3-11, 11-8.
Boys’ U-15 (quarter-finals): 1-Yash Fadte (GA) bt Sankalp Anand (DL) 11-8 11-8 11-6; 3/4-Navaneeth Prabhu S (TN) bt Tanay Punjabi (MH) 11-9 9-11 11-4 11-6; 3/4-Advait Adik (MH) bt Deepak Mandal (MH) 14-12 11-7 11-2; 2-Neel Joshi (MH) bt Shivamraaj Gulati (CH) 13-11 11-6 3-11 11-8.
Results – Girls’ U-15 (Quarter-finals): 1-Tin Yan Lau (HK) bt Aryaa Ogale (MH) 9-11 11-6 9-11 11-4 11-8; 3/ 4-Ananya Dabke (MH) bt Anannya Morey (MH) 11-6 11-3 11-8; Sin Yuk Chan (HK) bt 3/ 4-Megha Bhatia (DL) 11-6 11-7 11-0; Avani Nagar (MH) bt 2-Samita S (TN) 11-6 8-11 12-10 6-11 11-8.
Girls’ U-17 (quarter-finals): 1-Ashita Pranaya Bhengra (TN) bt Sparshi Mattas (GA) 11-4 11-3 11-2; Navmi Sharma (MH) bt Nandika Kumar (UP) 11-5 11-6 11-5; 3/ 4-Amita Gondi (TL) bt Simran Nagpal (DL) 11-4 11-5 11-7.
Boys’ U-15 (quarter-finals): 1-Yash Fadte (GA) bt Sankalp Anand (DL) 11-8 11-8 11-6; 3/4-Navaneeth Prabhu S (TN) bt Tanay Punjabi (MH) 11-9 9-11 11-4 11-6; 3/4-Advait Adik (MH) bt Deepak Mandal (MH) 14-12 11-7 11-2; 2-Neel Joshi (MH) bt Shivamraaj Gulati (CH) 13-11 11-6 3-11 11-8.
Boys’ U-17 (quarter-finals): 1-Tushar Shahani (MH) bt Rutvik Rau (MH) 11-2 11-9 11-9; Utkarsh Baheti (RJ) Chaitanya Shah (MH) 11-8 11-6 11-6; Arman Jindal (MH) bt Aryan Parekh (MH) 8-11 11-8 11-9 11-7; Veer Chotrani (MH) bt Gautam Nagpal (DL) 11-7 11-8 8-11 11-4.