Abhishek gets the better of Sandeep
by Sports BureauTop seed Abhishek Pradhan beat compatriot Sandeep Ramachandran 11-9, 11-5, 4-11, 11-6 in the quarterfinals of the HCL SRFI Challenger squash tournament at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium on Friday.
In the semifinals, Abhishek will play Navid Maleksabet of Iran, who recovered from losing the first two games to beat third seed Youngjo Ko of Korea.
The other semifinal will be between second seed Abhishek Agarwal and Ibrahim Elkabbani of Egypt.
In the $12,000 women’s tournament, fourth seed Sunayna Kuruvilla was unable to drive home the advantage after winning the first two games, but went down with guns blazing 11-8, 11-9, 9-11, 10-12, 9-11 to fifth seed Ooi Kah Yan of Malaysia in the quarterfinals.
The results: Men: Quarterfinals: Abhishek Agarwal bt Rahul Baitha 11-8, 7-11, 11-5, 11-4; Ibrahim Elkabbani (Egy) bt Mohammad Kashani (IRI) 11-2, 17-15, 14-12; Navid Maleksabet (IRI) bt Yongjo Ko (Kor) 5-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-5, 13-11; Abhishek Pradhan bt Sandeep Ramachandran 11-9, 11-5, 4-11, 11-6.
Pre-quarterfinals: Abhishek Agarwal bt Amir Amirul (Mas) 11-8, 8-11, 7-11, 11-5, 13-11; Baitha bt Rutvik Rau 8-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-6; Kashani bt Chang-Wook Woo (Kor) 11-8, 11-4, 11-7; Elkabbani bt Wee Ming Hock (Mas) 9-11, 11-4, 11-8, 12-10; Ko bt Vikas Mehra 11-8, 11-6, 11-3; Maleksabet bt Mohd Farez Izwan (Mas) 12-10, 15-13, 11-7; Sandeep bt Yash Fadte 11-4, 6-11, 11-7, 11-8; Abhishek Pradhan bt Karim Elbarbary (Egy) 14-12, 11-7, 11-9.
Women: Quarterfinals: Jana Shiha (Egy) bt Tsz-Wing Tong (Hkg) 13-11, 8-11, 11-4, 11-8; Wen Li Lai (Mas) bt Aifa Azman (Mas) 12-10, 11-5, 11-6; Ooi Kah Yan (Mas) bt Sunayna Kuruvilla 8-11, 9-11, 11-9, 12-10, 11-9; Salma Eltayeb (Egy) bt Nikki Todd (Can) 11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 11-3.
Pre-quarterfinals: Wong bt Sunghee Oh (Kor) 11-6, 11-5, 11-5; Shiha bt Yee Xin Ying (Mas) 11-7, 11-7, 4-11, 12-10; Lai bt Ainaa Amani (Mas) 12-10, 11-5, 11-6; Aifa bt Urwashi Joshi 8-11, 12-10, 11-3, 11-5; Sunayna bt Hwayeong Eum (Kor) 11-5, 13-11, 11-3; Ooi bt Risa Sugimoto (Jpn) 11-2, 12-10, 6-11, 12-10; Eltayeb bt Chan Yiwen (Mas) 11-13, 4-11, 11-6, 11-6, 11-9; Todd bt Sachika Balvani 11-5, 11-7, 9-11, 11-4.