Asian Games Squash: Indian men and women enter quarters

Nagoya, The Indian men's and women's teams on Monday marched into the quarterfinals of the Asian Games squash competition with the latter producing a gritty win over Japan here.

Indian women, seeded third, got past Japan 2-1 despite lead player Anahat Singh losing to world number six Satomi Watanabe in five games.

The 17th ranked Anahat had beaten the world number six Japanese in the individual semifinals before finishing with a historic silver.


Indian women, bronze medallists in the previous edition, had beaten China 3-0 in their opening match.

Veteran Joshna Chinappa, featuring in a record seventh Asian Games, gave India a 1-lead over Japan with a 11-1, 11-8, 11-9 win over Erisa Sano.

Next up was Anahat against Satomi for the second time in three days. Satomi was able to get the better of the Indian this time, pulling off a 11-8, 8-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-9 win in a 43-minute battle.

In the decider, Tanvi Khanna had to dig deep against Akari Midorikawa for a 12-10, 11-9, 4-11, 12-10 victory, sealing the match for India and a place in the quarterfinals.

The men's team, which won the gold in China, blanked South Korea to seal a place in the last eight stage.

In the opening singles, Velavan Senthilkumar defeated Jooyoung Na 11-6, 11-4, 11-7 before singles silver medallist Abhay Singh had a comfortable 11-4, 11-7, 11-1 result over Jeongmin Ryu.

Earlier on Monday, the Indian men were barely troubled as Suraj Chand, Veer Chotrani and Velavan Senthilkumar all registered comfortable wins to seal the tie in straight matches.

Chand set the tone by beating Du Shaoqian 11-4 11-3 12-10 in 30 minutes. Having raced through the opening two games, Chand was stretched in the third as Du earned a game point, but the Indian held his nerve to close it out 12-10.

Chotrani then extended India's lead with an emphatic 11-5 11-5 11-3 win over U Haizhen in under 20 minutes. Senthilkumar completed the rout, dispatching Zhou Penglin 11-3 11-2 11-4.

The women's team, meanwhile, had to fight hard after Sameena Riaz squandered a two-game advantage against Ziuan Yin.

Riaz, daughter of former India Asian Games hockey gold medallist and Olympian Mohammed Riaz, won the first two games but could not close out the match, going down 11-8 11-6 9-11 9-11 12-14 in a gruelling 41-minute contest.

Tanvi Khanna then restored parity for India with a dominant 11-3 11-5 11-5 win over Zhang Yuning in just 17 minutes.

Joshna Chinappa completed the comeback, using her experience to overcome Liu Ziyi 12-10 11-4 11-6 in 22 minutes and seal the 2-1 victory for India.