Ramachandran, Sandhu in main draw squash nationals

Sandeep Ramachandran of Tamil Nadu and Maninder Pal Singh Sandhu of Punjab advanced to the main draw of the Senior National Squash Championship and CCI-Western India Junior Open here today.
Joining Ramachandran and Sandhu were Arjun Agnihotri of Services and junior national runner-up Robin Singh Mann of Delhi. Ramachandran beat Abhishek Agarwal of Maharashtra 3-0 after being stretched into extra points in the second set, while Sandhu, younger sibling of India star Harinder Pal, prevailed over Abhay Singh of Tamil Nadu by the same margin.
In contrast, Mann endured a strong challenge before halting Naveen Jangra of Services with an exciting 3-1 win after the first and fourth sets stretched into extra points, while Agnihotri tamed Rajat Sharma of Delhi 3-0.

The significant winners in the Western India Junior Open were Velavan Senthilkumar and Navaneeth Prabhu of Tamil Nadu, national champion Yash Fadte of Goa and sub junior national champion Jeh Pandole of Maharashtra.
Results: Sr. Nat: Men (Final Qualifying Rd): Maj. Arjun Agnihotri (Ser) bt Rajat Sharma (Del) 11-3, 11-7, 11-7; Sandeep Ramachandran (TN) bt Abhishek Agarwal (Mah) 11-6, 12-10, 11-0; Robin Singh Mann (Del) bt Naveen Jangra (Ser) 11-13, 11-5, 11-7, 12-10; Maninder Pal Singh Sandhu (Pun) bt Abhay Singh (TN) 11-6, 11-5, 11-7.
CCI-Western India Junior Open: Girls U-13: Round of 16: Sarah Vethekar (Mah) bt Avneet Kaur (Mah) 11-2, 11-6, 11-3; Aryaa Ogale (Mah) bt Tina Lalchandani (Mah) 14-12, 11-1, 11-2; Anannya Morey (Mah) bt Iman Jaikishan (Mah) 11-0, 11-0, 11-2; 2-Avani Nagar (Mah) bt Rishita Mozinder Baruah (Assam) 11-4, 11-1, 11-0.

Boys U13: Round of 16: 1-Yash Fadte (Goa) bt Arnav Mandhana (Mah) 11-1, 11-2, 11-2; Yash Dhairyawan (Mah) bt Arman Darukhanawalla (Mah) 11-3, 11-7, 11-4; R. Kishore Arvind (TN) bt Vedant Mehra (Mah) 11-3, 11-3, 11-5; Advait Adik (Mah) bt Krish Shah (Mah) 11-6, 11-7, 11-3; Tanay Punjabi (Mah) bt Kavish Hajarnavis (Mah) 11-6, 11-4, 11-1; Deepak Mandal (Mah) bt Mahanshu Gupta (Raj) 11-6, 11-4, 11-6; 2-Navaneeth Prabhu Saravanakumar (TN) bt Abhinav Gupta (Kar) 11-0, 11-4, 11-5.

Girls U-15: Round of 32: Sukrita Panigrahi (Goa) bt Smera Mehta (Mah) 11-5, 11-8, 11-9; Pranjali Sharma (Mah) bt Aashni Parikh (Mah) 11-8, 11-6, 11-2; Janhavi Upadhyay (MP) bt Alekha Arora (Mah) 11-7, 11-4, 11-8 .

Boys U15: Round of 16: Vivaan Jaikishan (Mah) bt Yohann Poncha (Mah) 11-5, 12-10, 11-6; Arman Jindal (Mah) bt Arjun Lalchandani (Mah) 11-2, 11-5, 11-4.
Boys U19: Round of 32: Rajanpreet Singh Brar (Chg) bt Adit Bhansali (Mah) 11-7, 11-7, 11-9; Harshvardhan Wadhwa (Mah) bt Arya Sahni (Mah) 11-0, 11-0, 11-0; Ranjit Singh (UP) bt Kanav Sahni (Mah) 11-1, 11-2, 11-0; Velavan Senthilkumar (TN) bt Pradeep Amar Singh (Mah) 11-3, 11-6, 11-9.