Aditya struggles before advancing into u-19 squash semis

Mumbai, Nov 16 (UNI) The Quarter-finals almost proved disastrous for the No. 4 seeds as Aditya Gupta, Vrushab Kotian and Yohan Pandole were forced to go the distance before advancing to the last four, in the 64th CCI-Western India Open Squash Championship, co-sponsored by Lifebuoy, at the CCI on Friday.

Even as women's defending champion, top seed and India No 1 Joshna Chinappa arrived in Mumbai for the competition, CCI lads Aditya Gupta and Yohan Pandole were surprisingly stretched in tight quarter-final encounters.

Gupta was forced to rally from a 0-2 deficit as unseeded Javed Mohammed snatched the first two games and forced the fourth into extra points, before the former clinched the issue 9-10, 1-9, 9-4, 10-8, 9-2.

Pandole raced to a comfortable 2-0 lead before dropping the third and fourth games as unseeded Mishal Advani forced the decider before losing his way. Pandole eventually won 9-0, 9-3, 0-9, 6-9, 9-1.

Kotian endured the biggest challenge of the day in five tight games, before getting the better of unseeded Shashi Pandey 9-10, 9-7, 9-6, 9-10, 9-5.

Results: Men's Open (QF): Vikram Malhotra bt Dhiraj Nagpal 9-2, 9-4, 9-6.

Women (QF): Saumya Karki bt Shaheen Madraswala 9-3, 9-3, 9-0. 1st Rd: Avani Shetty bt Sdha Pandey 9-1, 9-0, 9-4; Saumya Karki bt Shahnaz Merchant 9-2, 9-0, 9-0; Shweta Yadav bt Shweta Singh 10-8, 9-6, 7-9, 10-8.

Boys U-19 (QF): Laxman Joshi bt Mahesh Mangaonkar 9-2, 9-1, 9-3; Aditya Jagtap bt Akhilesh Nayak 9-0, 9-6, 9-4; Abhinav Sinha bt Cyrus Vakil 9-5, 9-4, 9-2.

Boys U-17 (QF): Aditya Gupta bt Javed Mohd. 9-10, 1-9, 9-4, 10-8, 9-2; Abhishek Pradhan bt Anuj Chauhan 9-2, 9-0, 9-5; Aditya Jagtap bt Vrishabh Kotian 9-0, 9-3, 9-1.

Boys U-15 (QF): Vrishabh Kotian bt Shashi Pandey 9-10, 9-7, 9-6, 9-10, 9-5; Caran Arora bt Ness Billimoria 9-5, 9-0, 9-3; Abhishek Pradhan bt Samir Mistry 9-5, 9-2, 9-2; Mahesh Mangaonkar bt Rahil Fazelbhoy 9-0, 9-0, 9-0.

Boys U-13 (QF): Yohan Pandole bt Mishal Advani 9-0, 9-3, 0-9, 6-9, 9-1; Ishaan Advani bt Nishikant Khapre 9-1, 9-0, 9-5; Arjun Kochhar bt Akhilesh Yadav 9-5, 4-9, 9-4, 9-2; Raghav Malhotra bt Armaan Shaikh 9-3, 9-6, 9-0; .

Boys U-11 (QF): Sandeep Paswan bt Kshiteej Prasad 1-9, 9-2, 7-9, 9-2, 9-5; Yohan Pandole bt Aashaya Kejriwal 9-2, 9-5, 9-0; Yohan Surti bt Aryan Hemdev 9-2, 9-6, 9-0.

Girls U-19 (QF): Namrata Purohit bt Sudha Pandey 9-3, 9-1, 9-1; Saumya Karki bt Tanya Arora 9-0, 9-0, 9-0.

Girls U-15 (QF): Varsha Pandey bt Sanjana Merchant 9-6, 9-7, 10-8; Saumy Karki Bt Ruchi Mishra 9-0, 9-0, 9-0; Urvashi Joshi bt Rhea Advani 9-0, 9-1, 9-0.

Professionals (SF): Rohit More bt Sanjay Pawar 6-9, 5-9, 10-8, 9-7, 9-0; C. Gomez (Mexico) bt Sachin Jadhav 9-3, 9-3, 9-0.

UNI