In the women’s quarterfinal match of the 46th Maharashtra State Open Squash Tournament 2023, top seed Anahat Singh of Delhi defeated Nirupama Dubey of Maharashtra with a decisive score of 3-0.
Nirupama often was caught off guard when Anahat, a 15-year-old Delhin who had won the girls’ U-17 gold medal at the Asian Junior Squash Championship in Thailand last month, proved to be too good for her. Anahat had excellent touch as she raced to an 11-2, 11-3, 11-2 triumph.
Janet Vidhi, a second-seeded player from Maharashtra, defeated her fellow statewoman Bijali Darvada 11-4, 11-6, and 11-5 to get to the semifinals. With a comfortable 11-8, 11-4, 11-2 win against Reiva Nimbalkar of Maharashtra, the 3-4th seed from Tamil Nadu and Rathika Suthanthira Seelan will face Janet in the next round.
D. Nitiyasree and Goushika M., two young athletes from Tamil Nadu, quickly advanced to the Girls’ Under-13 semifinals. The top seed Nitiyasree upset the joint 3-4 seed Soniya Waghamare of Maharashtra 12-10, 11-4, and 11-8, while the unseeded Goushika triumphed over Manya Sanghavi of Maharashtra 11-7, 11-4, and 11-6. In the second quarterfinal match, unseeded Rajasthani Gauri Jaiswal defeated joint 3-4 seed Aashi Shah of Maharashtra by scores of 11-3, 11-4, and 11-3.
The top two seeds in the men’s draw earlier each prevailed in a round-16 match. Mahesh Mangaonkar, the top seed from Maharashtra, fell down in the opening game against Deepak Mandal, also from Maharashtra, but he recovered to win the next three games to secure the victory with scores of 10-12, 11-8, 11-5, and 11-7. Rahul Baitha, the second seed from Maharashtra, overcame Vishal Rajbhar, another member of his state, with scores of 11-5, 11-9, and 11-9.
Guhan Senthilkumar and Kanhav Nanavati, two competitors from Tamil Nadu, kept up their remarkable performance to go on to the quarterfinals. Adarsh Banodha, the joint third and fourth seed from Madhya Pradesh, was defeated by the unseeded Senthilkumar by scores of 11-6, 11-6, 10-12, 5-11, and 11-5. In his match against Avinash Yadav of Maharashtra, Nanavati was more at ease and won 12-10, 11-5, 13-15, and 11-4.
