Defending champion Harinder Pal Sandhu of Tamil Nadu made things difficult for himself but managed to beat Gaurav Nandrajog of Delhi and reach the semifinals of the men's event of the SBT-63rd national squash championship here today.
Joining him in the last four were top seed Saurav Ghosal, promising talent Kush Kumar and Ravi Dixit, all from Tamil Nadu.
In the women's section there were two upsets. School girl talent Sunayna Kuruvilla of Tamil Nadu, 5/8 seed ousted Urwashi Joshi of Maharashtra in straight games while Akansksha Salunkhe of Goa, another 5/8 seed showed the exit for Lakshya Ragavendran (3/4) of Tamil Nadu in four games.
Joining them in the semi-final were the top seed and defending champion Joshna Chinappa (TN) and second seed Harshit Kaur Jawanda (Del).
The results: quarterfinals:
Men: Saurav Ghosal (TN) bt Velavan Senthilkumar (TN) 11-5 11-5 11-8; Kush Kumar (TN) bt Sandeep Jangra (Del)12-10 11-5 13-11; Ravi Dixit (TN) bt Vijay Kumar (TN) 11-3 11-5 13-11; Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (TN) bt Gaurav Nandrajog (Del) 14-12 11-8 14-16 12-10.
Women: Joshana Chinappa (TN)bt Anandita Gupta (MP) 11-4 11-4 11-2; Sunayna Kuruvilla (TN) bt Urwashi Joshi (Mah)11-9 14-12 11-4; Akanksha Salunkhe (Goa) bt Lakshya Ragavendran (TN) 9-11 12-10 11-4 11-7; Harshit Kaur Jawanda (Del) bt Jannat Duhan (Chand) 11-1 11-4 11-5.
