Maharashtra State Open Squash: Top Seeds Anahat, Janet Cruise Into Semis

Maharashtra State Open Squash Tournament: Top seed Anahat Singh of Delhi scored an authoritative 3-0 win against Nirupama Dubey of Maharashtra in a women's quarterfinal match of the 46th Maharashtra State Open Squash Tournament 2023 here on Monday.

Anahat, the 15-year-old Delhi girl, who had won the girls' U-17 gold medal in the Asian Junior Squash Championship in Thailand last month, proved too good for Nirupama, who was often caught on the wrong foot. Anahat showed great touch and charged to a quick 11-2, 11-3, 11-2 victory.

Second seed Janet Vidhi of Maharashtra also advanced to the semifinals defeating her statemate Bijali Darvada 11-4, 11-6, 11-5. Tamil Nadu’s 3-4th seed Rathika Suthanthira Seelan also booked her place in the last four with an easy 11-8, 11-4, 11-2 victory against Maharashtra’s Reiva Nimbalkar and will meet Janet in the next round.

Tamil Nadu youngsters, D. Nitiyasree and Goushika M. stormed into the Girls’ Under-13 semifinals. The top seed Nitiyasree defeated Manya Sanghavi of Maharashtra 11-7, 11-4, 11-6, while unseeded Goushika recorded a stunning win against the joint 3-4 seed Soniya Waghamare of Maharashtra 12-10, 11-4, and 11-8. Rajasthan’s unseeded Gauri Jaiswal also scored an upset win over Maharashtra’s joint 3-4 seed Aashi Shah by an 11-3, 11-4, 11-3 scoreline in the other quarterfinals.

Earlier, the top two seeds in the men’s draw won their respective round-16 matches. The number one seed Mahesh Mangaonkar of Maharashtra lost the first game against Deepak Mandal also from Maharashtra but bounced back to take the next three to clinch a 10-12, 11-8, 11-5, 11-7 win. In contrast, Maharashtra’s second seed Rahul Baitha had things under complete control and defeated statemate Vishal Rajbhar 11-5, 11-9, and 11-9.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu contenders Guhan Senthilkumar and Kanhav Nanavati continued with their impressive showing to advance to the quarter-finals. The unseeded Senthilkumar played with plenty of resilience to overcome Madhya Pradesh’s joint 3-4th seed Adarsh Banodha 11-6, 11-6, 10-12, 5-11, and 11-5. Nanavati was more relaxed in his match against Maharashtra’s Avinash Yadav and posted a 12-10, 11-5, 13-15, 11-4 win.