Top seed Rahul and 2nd seed Sachika Storm into the quarters

Mumbai 7th August:  After winning his Men’s match comfortably yesterday, Rahul Baitha of Maharashtra started his U-19 campaign with a thumping victory defeating  unseeded Ashwin Krishnan 11-2, 11-3, 11-1 to advance to the Boys U-19  quarterfinals of the Otters Club Squash Open Squash Tournament 2019 co-sponsored by Mahindra Rise and played at the Otters Club Squash Courts on Wednesday

Rahul, who is competing in both Men’s open and Boy’s U-19 categories is on a roll. After entering the round of 16 in the Men’s earlier in the day, Rahul came back to face unseeded Ashwin who had done well in the tournament so far defeating 9^th seed Sidharth Kumar in an epic 5 game thriller to reach the pre-quarters. Unfortunately, Ashwin could not match the speed and skill of top seed Rahul, who ended his dream run completely dominating Ashwin on his way to an 11-2, 11-3, 11-1 straight games victory to advance to the quarterfinals.  In another match, Shlok Makhija of Maharashtra suffered the same fate as Ashwin in the hands of 2^nd seed Tushar Shahani. Tushar, who is also eying dual titles finished off his game in under 30 minutes defeating Shlok 11-3, 11-3, 11-4 on his way to the quarterfinals.

In the Women's Pre-quarters, 2nd Seed Sachika Balvani survived a scare to edge past unseeded Amita Gondi and advance to the quarterfinals. Amita played with a lot of heart and kept her nerves to clinch the first game 12-10 but Sachika recovered quickly to take the 2nd set 11-6 and level the scores. There was nothing separating the two and with Amita taking the 3rd game and Sachika bouncing back to take the 4th the match went to a decider. The final game was anti-climatic as Sachika really stepped up her performance to take the 5th game 11-3 and the match by 10-12, 11-6, 8-11, 12-10, 11-3 to advance to the quarterfinals.

Boy’s U-19 Pre- Quarters

Rahul Baitha [1] bt Ashwin Krishnan 11-2 11-3 11-1; Diwakar Singh [5/8] bt Deepak Mandal [9/16] 11-6 11-6 11-7; Tarun Mammen [9/16] bt Laxman Sakharam Pokale 11-7 11-8 11-4; Suraj Chand [3/4] bt Krish Shah [9/16] 11-7 11-9 11-7; Advait Adik [9/16] bt Shloke Sahay [5/8] 11-3 11-1 11-4; Tushar Shahani [2] bt Shlok Makhija [9/16] 11-3 11-3 11-4                                                             

Women’s Pre-Quaters                                                                 

Aakanksha Rao [5/8] bt Bijali Darvada 11-5 11-3 11-6; Avani Nagar Sanika Choudhari [3/4]; Aparajitha Balamurukan [3/4] bt Aditi Mehta 11-3 11-0 11-1;Nikita Agarwal [5/8] bt Ankita Patil 12-10 11-7 11-4 ; Sachika Balvani [2] bt Amita Gondi 10-12 11-6 8-11 12-10 11-3