Chennai, Dec 3 Former world No. 10 Joshna Chinappa rallied to beat Egyptian second seed Nardine Garas in a five-game thriller in the HCL Squash Indian Tour 4 quarterfinals on Wednesday, as four Indians advanced to the last-four stage in Chennai.
Velavan Senthilkumar and Anahat Singh, the reigning men’s and women’s National champions respectively, and top seeds, recorded straight-games victories at the Indian Squash Academy, while men’s second seed Veer Chotrani bowed out.
In the semifinals on Thursday, Joshna, 39, who won the Japan Open in October and finished runner-up in the Daly College Indian Open last month, will meet sixth seed compatriot Tanvi Khanna, who edged out Hong Kong fourth seed Nga Ching Cheng over five games.
Earlier, Velavan Senthilkumar and Anahat Singh, the reigning men’s and women’s National champions respectively, cruised into the quarterfinals of the event on Tuesday with clinical victories at the Indian Squash Academy.
World No. 46 Senthilkumar dismantled Sri Lanka’s Ravindu Laksiri 11-7, 11-8, 11-7, while Delhi teenager Anahat, ranked 29 in the world, eased past Tamara Holzbauerova (Czech Republic) 11-7, 11-7, 11-7 in the pre-quarterfinals after the Indian top seeds received first-round byes.
Former women’s world No. 10 Joshna Chinappa, women’s sixth seed Tanvi Khanna and men’s second seed Veer Chotrani were the other Indians who made it to the last-eight.
The results (Quarterfinals; Indians unless specified):
Men: 1-Velavan Senthilkumar bt 6-Joseph White (Aus) 11-9, 11-3,11-5; 5-Diego Gobbi (Bra) bt 3-Daniel Poleshchuk (Isr) 11-5, 11-4, 11-3; 7-Maceo Levy (Fra) bt 4-Ibrahim Elkabbani (Egy) 5-11, 11-5, 3-11, 14-12, 11-6; Adam Hawal (Egy) bt 2-Veer Chotrani 11-9, 11-7, 11-8.
Women: 3-Hayley Ward (RSA) bt 5-Ching Hei Fung (HK) 11-9, 11-8, -11, 7-11, 11-7; 1-Anahat Singh bt 8-Akari Midorikawa (Jpn) 11-2, 11-2, 11-8; 6-Tanvi Khanna bt 4-Nga Ching Cheng (HK) 7-11, 12-10, 14-12, 7-11, 11-4; Joshna Chinappa bt 2-Nardine Garas (Egy) 6-11, 11-7, 5-11, 11-6, 11-7.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor