Ghosal too good for Nandrajog
August 24, 2017
Reference: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-sports/ghosal-too-good-for-nandrajog/article19549430.ece
Joshana cruises into pre-quarterfinals with two wins
Top seed Saurav Ghosal was in too good a touch to let Gaurav Nandrajog stretch him in the men’s pre-quarterfinals of the HCL 74th National squash championship at the Shiv Nadar University Indoor Complex here on Wednesday.
Ghosal, the 11-time National champion, had beaten Nandrajog in the 2006 final, but the latter had been grappling with injuries thereafter to pose any further challenge till this day.
Despite coming through the strenuous qualifying event, winning five matches including the last round in the morning, Nandrajog said that though he had the energy, he was not prepared to tackle a champion of Ghosal’s class straightaway in the knock-out phase.
“It was the luck of the draw. My name was picked first and I had to play the top seed,” said Nandrajog, quite pleased that he could at least compete in the third game.
Second seed Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu was not too happy with his start against Vikas Jangra, but said that he would be sharp as the tournament progressed.
In the women’s event, 14-time national champion Joshana Chinappa cruised into the pre-quarterfinals, winning two matches, in a draw that had to be stretched to 128 owing to one extra player.
The results: Men: Pre-quarterfinals: Saurav Ghosal bt Gaurav Nandrajog 11-2, 11-5, 11-9; Abhishek Pradhan bt Ravi Dixit 12-10, 11-5, 11-6; Vijay Kumar bt Rishi Jalan 11-5, 11-3, 11-4; Kush Kumar bt Abhinav Sinha 11-9, 11-4, 11-4; Mahesh Mangaonkar bt Abhishek Agarwal 11-4, 11-2, 11-6; Velavan Senthilkumar bt Vikas Mehra 11-8, 11-7, 11-3; Aditya Jagtap bt Ranjit Singh 11-8, 4-11, 11-4, 11-6; Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu bt Vikas Jangra 11-3, 11-8, 11-2.
Women: Third round: Joshana Chinappa bt Harshita Goyal 11-4, 11-6, 11-1; Sanika Choudhari bt Sunny Mehta 11-0, 11-2, 11-1; Ashita Pranaya Behngra w/o Sejal Bahl; Hritika Malhotra bt Jannat Duhan 11-3, 11-5, 11-5; Tanvi Khanna bt Soni Kumari 11-0, 11-0, 11-0; Sachika Balvani bt Aardhana Kasturiraj 11-2, 11-4, 11-2; Megha Bhatia bt Oma Choudhary 11-8, 11-4, 11-2; Sunayna Kuruvilla bt Mahek 11-2, 11-3, 11-4; Sachika Ingale bt Adya Wadhwa 11-1, 11-2, 11-3; Mayuri Namasivayam bt Hresha Patil 11-2, 11-4, 11-1; Amira Singh bt Shamita Yadav 11-2, 11-1, 11-0; Lakshya Ragavendran bt Chandani Kumari 11-1, 11-3, 11-2; Urwashi Joshi bt Smriti Bajaj 11-1, 11-1, 11-5; Jui Kalgutkar bt Rewati Kumari 11-0, 11-1, 11-0; Riya Sisodia bt Neha Kumari 11-0, 11-0, 11-0; Prapti Salunkhe bt Nitya Arya 11-3, 11-4, 11-5.
