Kush, Siddharth advance in u-13 Otters Open squash tourney

Mumbai, Jun 10 (UNI) Top seed Kush Kumar and No 7 Siddharth Singh registered convincing wins to advance to the boys' under-13 second round in the Otters Open Squash Tournament, at the Otters Club, here today.

As the juniors continued to hold sway, Kumar warmed up for sterner tests ahead when he demolished unseeded Aditya Singhi 9-1, 9-1, 9-2 in the first round, while Siddharth Singh sailed past Nikhil Mikhija 9-0, 9-1, 9-0.

In contrast, fancied Harshil Sharma was forced to endure a late challenge before overcoming Basant Singh 10-9, 9-5, 7-9, 6-9, 9-4 in a thrilling first round tie in the same category.

Sharma got off to a dream start with a 2-0 lead, though he clinched the opening game over extra points. But Singh surprised him with a brilliant comeback that helped him snatch the third and fourth games to force the decider.

Singh kept pace with Sharma until 4-4 in the fifth and final game before he lost his way and Sharma raced on to seal the issue.

Mumbai lad Sujat Barua rallied to a significant win when he overcame formidable Cyril Kuhn of Delhi 6-9, 9-5, 9-10, 9-8, 9-2 in a pulsating Men's Open second round clash.

Kuhn forfeited the lead on two occasions in one of the closest contests of the day that included tight third and fourth games, and lost his way in the deciding fifth.

Among the professionals, Rehman Sayyed of Goa overcame Mumbai's formidable Dashrat Tambe 9-5, 9-3, 1-9, 3-9, 9-2 in a second round thriller that was the closest match in the category.

Results: Men's Open (2nd Rd): Sujat Barua beat Cyril Kuhn (Del) 6-9, 9-5, 9-10, 9-8, 9-2; Aditya Jagtap bt Waqar Pathan 9-1, 9-1, 9-2; Parth Sharma (Raj) bt Siddharth Samantray 9-7, 9-0, 9-0; Amjad Khan (Del) bt Akhilesh Nayak 9-3, 9-0, 9-4; Rishi Jalan (Del) bt Ashish Sunnir 9-0, 9-0, 9-0; Supreet Singh upset Ravi Pandey 9-4, 9-0, 9-2; Sami Johnson (Raj) bt Sanjay Pawar 9-0, 9-6, 2-9, 9-1.

Boys U-13 (1st Rd): Sandeep Paswan bt Vinod Sheoran 9-2, 9-3, 9-0; Abhimanyu Shah bt Himanshu D 9-3, 9-3, 9-0; Divij S Kadam bt Raul Landers 9-0, 9-0, 9-0; Yohan Pandole thrashted Vedant Baheti 9-1, 9-4, 9-7; Siddharth Singh bt Nikhil Makhija 9-0, 9-1, 9-0; Shwatank Khandelwal bt Sanket Saini 9-0, 9-0, 9-2; Kush Kumar bt Aditya Singhi 9-1, 9-1, 9-2; Ranjeet Singh bt Karan Kochar 9-4, 9-3, 9-3; Madhav Dhingra defeated Kushal Thapa 9-0, 9-0, 9-1; Shashi Pandey bt Aditya Kochhar 9-4, 9-5, 9-4; Puneet Parekh bt Harshwardhan Wadhwa 9-1, 6-9, 9-3, 9-7; Shashank Gupta bt Avi Harisinghanvi 9-7, 9-6, 9-7; A. Gupta bt Avi Harisinghanvi 9-7, 9-6, 9-7; Harshil Sharma bt Basant Singh 10-9, 9-5, 7-9, 6-9, 9-4.

Professionals (2nd Rd): Santosh More bt Sunil Varma 9-3, 9-3, 9-4; Gopi Mohite bt Manoj Solanki 9-7, 9-4, 9-3; Rohit More bt Khuman Bhati 9-1, 9-1, 9-2; Rehman Sayyed bt Dashrat Tambe 9-5, 9-3, 1-9, 3-9, 9-2; Temo Gomez upset Devdas Tambe 9-0, 9-0, 9-0; Tarek Mabruk bt Sagar Dharne 9-0, 9-1, 9-1; Sanjay Salvi bt Hariom Tripathi 9-7, 9-5, 10-8; Sachin Jadhav bt Rajesh Sonawane 9-4, 9-3, 9-6; Vijay Jangra bt Yogesh Sonawane 9-1, 3-9, 9-2, 9-1; Shakir Hussain bt Deepak Molani 9-6, 9-0, 9-0; Amjad Khan bt Himmat Bhati 9-1, 9-0, 9-0.

Men's Over-35 (2nd Rd): Avinash Bhavnani bt Jayato Mukharji 9-1, 9-6, 9-7; Nishikant Bhandari bt Col R D Sharma 9-5, 9-2, 9-0; Jahangir Surti bt Dr Sheshadri 9-4, 9-3, 9-2; Darius Surti bt Ravi Chabria 9-3, 9-1, 9-4; Temo Gomez bt Joyson Bothelo 9-0, 9-0, 9-0; Tarek Mabruk bt Rakesh Agarwal 9-1, 9-8, 9-1; Manish Chotrani bt Nikhil Pant 9-2, 9-0, 9-2.

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