Second seed Anahat Singh (Delhi) defeated Pooja Arthi (Tamil Nadu) 11-6, 11-8, 11-4 and Diya Yadav (Karnataka) 11-7, 11-2, 11-2 in the round-of-16 and quarterfinal matches to make it to the women’s semifinals in Chennai on Tuesday.

Good going: Second seed Anahat Singh posted commanding wins in the round-of-16 and quarterfinals. 
| Photo Credit: VELANKANNI RAJ_B

Second seed Anahat Singh (Delhi) defeated Pooja Arthi (Tamil Nadu) 11-6, 11-8, 11-4 and Diya Yadav (Karnataka) 11-7, 11-2, 11-2 in the round-of-16 and quarterfinal matches to make it to the women’s semifinals of the 79th National squash championships at the Indian Squash and Triathlon Academy (ISTA) here on Tuesday.

Top seed Tanvi Khanna (Delhi) also had seemingly easy outings as she beat Tanishka Jain (Maharashtra) 11-7, 11-5, 11-1 in the round of 16 and Shameena Riaz (Tamil Nadu) 11-5, 11-4, 11-4 in the quarterfinal.

In the men’s quarterfinals, Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (Tamil Nadu) claimed a straight sets win, 11-9, 11-7, 11-9, over Veer Chotrani (Maharashtra).

Veer remarkably saved four match points in the third game before Harinder closed out the match.

“I feel very relieved. I have only practised with Veer, but not played against him in a match. So, it was a bit new. And he’s coming from America with a good number of wins. He was obviously high on confidence.

“I just slowed down a bit (in the third game). I took it a little bit easy, lost a little bit of concentration. And that happens when the court is a bit colder. In the glass court, if you take the ball in the front in cold conditions, it pays off for whoever does it well. The ball doesn’t come back as much. And he did quite well then,” said Harinder after the match.

Top seed Abhay Singh brushed aside Guhan Senthilkumar 11-2, 11-2, 11-5.

The results:

Men, quarterfinals: Abhay Singh (TN) bt Guhan Senthilkumar (TN) 11-2, 11-2, 11-5; Suraj Chand (Mah) bt Vaibhav Chauhan (SC) 11-3, 11-8, 11-7; Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (TN) bt Veer Chotrani (Mah) 11-9, 11-7, 11-9; Velavan Senthilkumar (TN) bt Vedant Patel (Guj) 11-3, 11-4, 11-7.

Women, round of 16: Tanvi Khanna (Del) bt Tanishka Jain (Mah) 11-7, 11-5, 11-1; Shameena Riaz (TN) bt Mahak Talati (MP) 11-2, 11-1, 11-4; Rathika Suthanthira Seelan (TN) bt Nirupama Dubey (Mah) 11-8, 11-4, 11-3; Janet Vidhi (Mah) bt Ananya Narayanan (TN) 11-8, 11-5, 8-11, 14-12; Urwashi Joshi (Mah) bt Aryaa Dwivedi (TS) 11-3, 11-4, 11-4; Sunita Patel (Mah) bt Reiva Nimbalkar (Mah) 11-7, 11-9, 11-4; Diya Yadav (Kar) bt Unnati Tripathi (UP) 6-11, 11-6, 12-10, 11-6; Anahat Singh (Del) bt R. Pooja Arthi (TN) 11-6, 11-8, 11-4.

Quarterfinals: Tanvi bt Shameena 11-5, 11-4, 11-4; Rathika bt Janet 11-4, 11-6, 11-2; Urwashi bt Sunita 5-11, 11-6, 11-4, 11-2; Anahat bt Diya 11-7, 11-2, 11-2.