Indian men enter quarter-finals

Hong Kong, July 9: Indian men expectedly went through to the quarter-finals from Pool A in the 10th Asian Squash Team Championship on Sund...

Hong Kong, July 9: Indian men expectedly went through to the quarter-finals from Pool A in the 10th Asian Squash Team Championship on Sunday with comfortable 3-0 victories over Sri Lanka and Singapore. The four-team pool also includes favourites Malaysia, looking for their first team title ending Pakistan8217;s 10-year reign.

India fielded their top three 8212; Ritwik Bhattacharya, Manish Chotrani and Dhiraj Singh 8212; against Sri Lanka, who leaned heavily on the long-haired Saman Tillekeratne. Once Ritwik tackled Saman, who has settled down in France and plays his squash as a professional there, India were home. The 77-minute match which Ritwik won 9-4 10-8 7-9 2-9 9-6 saw the best of Saman in the third and fourth games. The Sri Lankan stepped up the pace after the second game which he lost in 21 minutes and headed for victory with a nice 4-0 and 6-4 lead in the decider. Ritwik applied pressure at the right time and turned the tide in his favour.

The Indian National champion Manish Chotrani, playing for the first time abroad, could have easily wrapped up his match against the 18-year-old Navin Samarasinghe but the Indian8217;s inexperience at this level told on the scores in the first and third games. The 29-year-old Manish, who hardly gets time to spare for squash because of his garment business compulsions in Mumbai, won the match 9-7 9-0 9-7. Dhiraj had an easy time against Hirantha Gunasena winning 9-4 9-4 8-0 conceded as the Lankan collided with his rival towards the end and never returned to court.

Later, India routed Singapore as Manish Chotrani defeated Mohd Rizal 9-2 9-2 9-7; Ritwik prevailed over Lim Jit Uei 9-5 9-3 10-8 and Dhiraj Singh beat Dermadi Adi 9-4 10-8 9-5.

Assuming that they would finish second in the pool behind Malaysia, India would probably face Japan likely to finish third in pool B in the knock-out quarter-finals. Hong Kong wore out Japan 2-1 in a match to cement their second place chances from Pool B where Pakistan are the strong favourites. In the women8217;s section, India blanked Chinese Taipei 3-0 even without fielding Mekhala Subedar, who took a drop. Deepali Anwekar, Vaidehi Reddy and Supriya Balsekar took less than half an hour for the entire match and conceded only 11 points in all. India have a tough task ahead as they face Japan on Monday after an easy match against Thailand. They have to beat Japan to qualify for the semi-final.