London: India’s Anahat Singh and Ramit Tandon made winning starts to their London Squash Classic campaigns, advancing to the pre-quarterfinals of the PSA Gold tournament with straight-game victories, while Veer Chotrani bowed out in the opening round on Wednesday.
Women’s world No. 20 and reigning junior world champion Anahat delivered the most dominant Indian performance of the day, needing only 11 minutes to overcome Egypt’s Mariam Metwally, ranked No. 30 in the world, 11-3, 11-2.
The Indian teenager took control from the opening exchanges and allowed Metwally little opportunity to settle into the contest. After racing through the first game, Anahat was equally commanding in the second to seal her place in the next round at the USD 144,000 PSA Gold event.
Her next challenge will be considerably tougher, with Belgium’s World No. 11 Nele Gilis awaiting her in Thursday’s pre-quarterfinal.
In the men’s draw, world No. 42 Ramit Tandon also advanced without dropping a game, defeating Qatar’s Abdullah Al-Tamimi 11-6, 11-7 in a 20-minute opening-round contest.
Tandon maintained control across both games to book his place in the pre-quarterfinals, where he will face eighth seed Mohamed ElShorbagy on Wednesday. Egyptian-born ElShorbagy now represents England and will present a major test for the Indian player.
There was, however, disappointment for world No. 38 Veer Chotrani, who was edged out by Switzerland’s Yannick Wilhelmi in a closely fought straight-game encounter.
Wilhelmi, ranked No. 34 in the world, won both games by identical 11-9 margins to bring Chotrani’s campaign to an early end.
The London Squash Classic continues to provide important international competition for India’s leading players, with both Anahat and Chotrani also part of the country’s squash squad preparing for the upcoming Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
With Anahat and Tandon safely through to the pre-quarterfinal stage, India will now look to build on a strong opening day at one of the prominent PSA World Tour Gold events of the season.
(IANS)
