Megha Bhatia and Navaneeth Prabhu assured India of at least two bronze medals by reaching the semifinals of the U-13 girls and boys competition, respectively, at the Asian Junior Squash Championship here today.
Bhatia beat fellow Indian Avani Nagar 3-1 in the quarterfinals. However, two other Indians in the category, Aryaa Ogale and Ananya Dabke, lost their matches.
In the U-13 boys, Prabhu defeated Albatayneh of Jordan in the quarterfinals.
In the pre-quarterfinal phase, a few matches involving Indian players came into focus. Veer Chotrani came close to edging out second seed Muhammad Hafiz Zhafri of Malaysia in the U-15 section. Two years ago the two had played the U-13 final but an early meeting did not change the fortunes with the Malaysian winning again but after a strong resistance from Chotrani.
Abhay Singh was all fire against top seed Mohammed Khalil Alsarraj of Jordan. The Indian had a match ball advantage in a match that went five games but the Jordanian squeezed out of trouble eventually. Vikas Mehra on the other hand let go the advantage of a two game and a 6-1 lead in the fifth game against the second seed Ong Sai Hung.
The Results: pre-quarterfinals: Boys: U-19: Mudit Pant bt Majid Karim Panah (IRN) 11-7, 11-6, 11-8 ; Velavan Senthilkumar bt Don A.R. Rajarathna (Sri) 11-1, 11-4, 11-4; Harshvardhan Wadhwa lost to Sajad Zareian 3-11, 2-11, 7-11; Sandeep Ramachandran bt R.P.Jayawardane (Sri) 11-4, 11-8, 11-6
U-17: Mohammed Khalil Alsarraj (Jor) bt Abhay Singh 8-11,11-6,7-11, 11-1, 16-14; Ibrahim Khaleel Abulaban (Jor) bt Robin singh Mann 12-10, 11-6, 11-8; Adhitya Raghavan bt A.H. Feizpour (IRN) 11-9, 11-5, 8-11, 11-6; Ong Sai Hung (Mal) bt Vikas Mehra 6-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-4, 12-10
U-15: Rahul Baitha bt A.R. Mohammad Alsarraj(Jor) 11-9, 11-6, 11-9; Tushar Shahani w/o Pooyan Habibpoor (Irn); Saksham Choudhary (Ind) bt K A D J Raveen (Sri) 9-11, 11-5, 11-0, 11-3; Veer Chotrani lost to Muhammad Hafiz Zhafri (Mal) 12-10, 10-12, 7-11, 10-12;
U-13: Navaneeth Prabhu bt Sepehr Eftekhari (Irn) 11-6, 11-5, 11-5; Shreemann Raghavan lost to Daniel gharooni (Irn) 5-11, 6-11, 6-11; Neel Joshi bt Asmone M.I. Faheth (Sri) 11-2, 11-2, 11-3; Tanay Panjabi lost to MA. Amirul (Mal) 6-11, 8-11, 4-11
Girls: U-19: jui Kalgutkar bt Mudiyansalage Rajapaksha (Sri) 11-2,11-1, 11-2; Adya Advani bt Rezvan Naghibi 11-3, 11-7, 11-2; Harshit Jawanda w/o Sajedeh Karimi (Irn)
U-17: Asita Bhengra bt Sara Ahmadi (Irn) 11-1, 11-7, 11-5; Nikita Joshi bt Ailee Nayeri (Irn) 11-5, 11-5, 10-12, 11-8; Akanksha Salunkhe bt Najme Bhooshehri (irn) 11-3, 11-6, 11-2)
U-15: Navmi Sharma bt Kosar Behnam (Irn) 11-9, 11-9, 14-12; Ooi Kah Yan (Mal) bt Jannia singh 11-3, 11-3, 11-3; Samita Sivakumar bt Gamage Onelli (Sri) 11-2, 11-0, 11-2
U-13: Megha Bhatia bt Tharushi Magaanaraachchi (Sri) 11-0, 11-2, 11-1; Avani Nagar bt Narges Soltani (Irn) 11-3, 11-0, 11-1; Aryaa Ogale bt Veera Shamiyel Sinalli (Sri) 11-3, 11-3, 11-3; Ananya Dabke bt Narhol Ramezanzadeh (Irn) 11-4, 11-2,11-4.
