Top seed and India No 3 Mahesh Mangaonkar of Maharashtra had an easy day as he outplayed an unseeded Anurag Iyengar to advance to the Round 2 of the 44th Maharashtra State Senior Open Squash Tournament organised under the aegis of SRFI and Maharashtra Squash Rackets Association, sponsored by JSW, Raheja Corp, Shoppers Stop, Indospace Logistics and played at the Bombay Gymkhana Squash Courts on Friday.
Neil Joshi in action during the 44th Maharashtra State Senior Open Squash Tournament at Bombay Gymkhana.
Anurag, who hails from Karnataka showed promise but failed to put up a fight against the top seed Mangaonkar who made short work of the Karnataka lad securing an 11-4, 11-3, 11-4 straight games victory and aadvance to the second round. In another match, unseeded Tizil Saini of UP braved a strong challenge of a higher-ranked Akash Kumar of Tamil Nadu before securing an upset victory. Tizil and Akash started strong, matching each other in skill and speed. Just when there was nothing separating the two at 13-13, Tizil stepped up and produced 2 brilliant shots to stun Akash and take the first game 15-13. After a triumphant 1st game, Tizil assessed his opponents game perfectly and made all the right moves to take the 2nd and 3rd game by 11-2, 11-1 and advance to the 2nd round. Meanwhile, 3rd seed Abhishek Agarwal remained unchallenged as he breezed past an Unseeded Pratinav Deb to an 11-3, 11-4, 11-4 straight games victory.
In the Western Slam (Junior) Boy’s U-19, unseeded Neel Joshi of Maharashtra took on a much higher-ranked Avinash Yadav who is also from Maharashtra and seeded in the [5/8] category. After managing to win the 1st game in a tiebreaker at 12-10, Neel went on to dominate winning his 2nd and 3rd game by 11-3, 11-8 to advance to the 2nd round. Meanwhile, Ajay Singh Badhoria of Uttarakhand who is seeded [9/16] survived a scare as he fought hard to down an unseeded Shanay Sanghvi of Maharashtra 6-11, 11-2, 6-11, 11-1, 11-7 in a 5 game thriller and advance to the next round.
Results
Men’s Open
Mahesh Mangaonkar [1] bt Anurag Iyengar 11-4, 11-3, 11-4;Abhay Singh [3/4] bt Amay Merchant 11-7,11-3,11-5; Anuj Unadkat [9/16] bt Suhail Abbas 11-4, 11-2, 11-2; Tizil Saini bt Akash Ashok Kumar [17/32] 15-13, 11-2, 11-1; Abhinav Sinha [5/8] bt Puneet Baldawa 11-3, 11-4, 11-1; Abhinav Thyagarajan bt Varun Johnny [17/32] 11-1, 11-0, 11-3; Naveen Jangra [9/16] bt Deep Padachh11-3, 11-2, 11-1; Aishwary Singh [9/16] bt Vikas Samota 11-2, 11-1, 11-1; Abhishek Agarwal [3/4]bt Pratinav Deb 11-3, 11-4, 11-4
Results
Western Slam (Junior) Boy’s U-19
Vivaan Jaikishan [5/8] bt Vedant Ambani 11-13, 11-5, 11-7, 11-9; Prithvi Singh [5/8] bt Laxman Sakharam Pokale 11-2, 11-2, 11-2; Ajay Singh Bhadoria [9/16] bt Shanay Sanghavi 6-11, 11-2, 6-11, 11-1, 11-7; Araash Mehta [3/4] bt Rishabh Nigam 11-3, 11-3, 11-6; Neel Joshi bt Avinash Yadav [5/8] 12-10, 11-3, 11-8; Jaideep Singh Sethi [5/8] bt Anmol Malik 11-3, 11-6, 11-6