Top seed and defending champion, Sourav Ghosal and second seed Mahesh Mangaonkar had it easy as they cruised into the men's second round of the 73rd Senior National Squash Championship at the Otters Club here today.
Ghosal, bidding for his eleventh crown, and Mangaonkar scored straight-game victories over Ranjit Singh and Abhishek Pradhan respectively to enter the quarterfinals.
Former champion Harinder Pal Sandhu, seeded 3/4, was taken the distance and had go come back from 1-2 before showing the exit door to qualifier Gaurav Nandrajog in a tough battle.
A gallant Nandrajog, runner-up in the 2006 nationals, came close to fashioning the competition's first significant upset before Sandhu rallied to a hard-fought 11-3 11-6 8-11 4-11 11-1 win to set up his next clash with Ravi Dixit.
Velavan Senthilkumar, seeded 5/8, needed four games to subdue his first round opponent Aryaman Adik while another seed Dixit won a closely fought battle against Krish Kapur in three games.
In the women's man draw, top two seeds - defending champion Joshna Chinappa and no. 2 Dipika Pallikal, playing her first nationals after 2011, also reached the second round with straight-game wins.
The other significant winners were third seed Sachika Ingale of Uttar Pradesh and fourth seed Akanksha Salunkhe of Goa.
Results (Seedings in bracket):
Men (1st round): Saurav Ghosal [1] bt Ranjit Singh 11-3 11-5 11-8; Vijay Kumar [5/8] bt Veer Chotrani 11-5 11-2 11-7; Vikram Malhotra [3/4] bt Sandeep Jangra 11-7 11-3 11-9; Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu [3/4] bt Gaurav Nandrajog 11-3 11-6 8-11 4-11 11-1; Ravi Dixit [5/8] bt Krish Kapur 12-10 11-6 11-8; Velavan Senthilkumar [5/8] bt Aryaman Adik 11-6 11-8 9-11 11-5; Mahesh Mangaonkar [2] bt Abhishek Pradhan 11-3 11-9 11-5.
Women (2nd round): Joshna Chinappa [1] bt Machuma Begam Choudhury 11-3 11-0 11-0; Ananya Dabke bt Sarah Vethekar 11-9 11-2 11-3; Jui Kalgutkar bt Manisha G 11-0 11-0 11-0; Urwashi Joshi bt Anna Avasthi 11-5 11-6 11-5; Mayuri Namasivayam bt Neha Kumari 11-1 11-1 11-0; Aishwarya Khubchandani bt Manisha Bisht 11-5 11-2 11-2; Akanksha Salunkhe [4] bt Shikha Kumari 11-0 11-3 11-0; Sachika Ingale [3] bt Henna Muzafar 11-0 11-3 11-0; Aishwarya Bhattacharya bt Sunidhi Pandey 11-2 11-2 11-1; Aryaa Ogale bt K Tamanna 11-2 11-2 11-1; Adya Advani bt Sweta Budhia 11-0 11-0 11-1; Lakshya Ragavendran bt Sunny Mehta 11-0 11-2 11-3; Anannya Morey bt Sushmita Panigrahi 11-7 11-6 11-8; Dipika Pallikal Karthik bt Nitu Sharma 11-0 11-1 11-0.
