Indians Advance In $10K WSA Chennai Open
by Gautam Das for Squash365
May 23, 2012 - On a creditable day for seasoned Joshna Chinappa and Anaka Alankamony, it was valuable experience for the Indian Squash Academy trainee Ashita Bhengra of Tamil Nadu and Delhi’s Harshit Kaur in the first round main draw of the Chennai Open Squash Championship that commenced here today.
Alankamony, currently the top most Indian junior making waves on international levels, despite failing to play to her potentials, put paid to the aspirations of seventh seeded Zulhijah Binti Azan of Malaysia to join the other seven seeds including Chinappa in the quarterfinals to be played tomorrow.
Anaka’s match was most interesting and best amongst the eight matches held today. As the match started it was evident that Anaka was listless in the manner in which was moving around the court and not getting anything right. However, she surprised everyone with her game plan and scored at will to neutralize the game score one-all without yielding any point.
In the third game, it was a matter of keeping up to the momentum and the Indian displayed great skills in mixing her drives and volleys and in fact, Anaka was that much swift to hold and then flick for points. But, the fourth turned out to be Anaka in the slumber once again like in the first game and the match drifted to the decider. Here, Anaka led 4-1 and looked to be lost in concentration once again. Anaka, who gave six points in a row to the Malaysian, displayed great game skills to shift to the aggressive mode. Once Anaka got aggressive, the Malaysian threw in the towel.
In the side court, Ashita, a school going kid, went down in straight games to sixth seed Carrie Ramsey of England but learnt useful lessons from the loss, while Harshit Kaur, the current under-15 champion, went down fighting in a close tie against Malaysia’s Pushpa Devi, who could win 11-8, 12-10, 12-10.
Harshit was in her elements and brought her potential in to play but lost the first game 8-11. The Malaysian had to bringing something extra in to her play apart from her experience as Harshit showed signs of recovery and rose to game ball up in the second. Here, the Indian lacked the required experience to finish for points after a rally. And, in the final game too, Harshit carried on with her good work and kept pushing her but the left handed Malaysian recovered well to make most of the situation.
The longest match of the day was an all-Egyptian clash between fifth seed Salma Hany and qualifier Mariam Metwally, with Hany emerging the victor in a see-saw five game battle.
Three English players progressed, all in straight games, and Sarah-Jane Perry and Victoria Bell will play each other for a place in the semi-finals while Carrie Ramsey meets second seed Chinappa.
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