Nagoya, Sep 28 (IANS): The Indian men’s and women’s squash teams marched into the quarterfinals of the Asian Games after contrasting victories on Monday, with the women producing a hard-fought 2-1 win over Japan and the defending champion men’s team completing a clean sweep against South Korea.
The women’s team, seeded third and bronze medallists at the previous Asian Games, had to dig deep after world No. 6 Satomi Watanabe defeated India’s Anahat Singh in a five-game battle.
The experienced Joshna Chinappa, who is making his seventh appearance at the Asian Games, put India in the lead by defeating Erisa Sano 11-1, 11-8, 11-9. Anahat then played against Watanabe, someone she had beaten in the individual semifinals earlier in the competition, and subsequently won a historic silver medal.
This time Watanabe turned the situation around, coming back from a 1–2 disadvantage to win against Anahat 11–8, 8–11, 7–11, 11–8 and 11–9 in a match that lasted 43 minutes and thus level the series.
In the deciding match against Akari Midorikawa, Tanvi Khanna managed to build up the courage and won 12-10, 11-9, 4-11, 12-10, thus securing India’s spot in the last eight.
India had earlier started their campaign with the women’s team by beating China 3-0 in their first Pool game.
At the same time, the men’s team carried on with their period of dominance by beating South Korea 3-0, thus finishing first in their group and moving on to the quarterfinals.
Velavan Senthilkumar started off with a win against Na Jooyoung, scoring 11-6, 11-4 and 11-7, while Abhay Singh, who had won a silver medal in the singles event, extended India’s lead by defeating Ryu Jeongmin 11-4, 11-7 and 11-1.
Veer Chotrani achieved a clean sweep, winning against Oh Seojin 11-6, 11-4 and 11-2.
Earlier in the day, the Indian men’s team also beat China 3-0, with Suraj Chand, Chotrani and Senthilkumar each securing wins in the individual events.
Chand won against Du Shaoqian 11-4, 11-3 and 12-10, while Chotrani defeated U Haizhen 11-5, 11-5 and 11-3. Senthilkumar then concluded the match with a victory over Zhou Penglin by scoring 11-3, 11-2 and 11-4.
The women’s team had also played against China, winning 2-1 after overcoming a tough challenge. However, Sameena Riaz lost the match when she was behind in two games, the score being 11-8, 11-6, 9-11, 9-11, 12-14.
Tanvi regained parity by winning against Zhang Yuning 11-3, 11-5, 11-5, and Chinappa then finished off the comeback with a victory over Liu Ziyi with scores of 12-10, 11-4, 11-6.
At the last Asian Games in Hangzhou the Indian men’s team won the gold medal and the women’s team obtained bronze. The two teams will now aim to progress further in the knockout rounds in Aichi-Nagoya.
