Vrishab Kotian defeated second seed Gaurav Nandrajog 3-1 in the quarterfinals of the men’s category in the NSCI open squash championship at the National Sports Club of India, Worli on Wednesday.
Kotian, the top seed in the under-19 category, put up a commanding display and won the first two games of the match. The Tamil Nadu teenager opened up a three-point lead at 2-5 in the first game. He gradually extended his lead, thus not allowing his Delhi opponent to make a comeback. He eventually won the game 11-6.
Nandrajog, who is ranked fifth in India, tried hard to draw level in the second, but only managed to reduce the margin of his defeat. Kotian, the India under-19 No 2, took the game 11-8. Nandrajog took lead for the first time in the do-or-die third game at 4-3, after which, he let his opponent win only one point in the game. He pushed the match into the fourth game by clinching the third 11-4.
Nandrajog’s revival only proved to be temporary as Kotian raced to a 4-0 lead in the fourth game. The senior won two points in the exchanges but, at 9-2 he had a mountain to climb in order to push the match to a fifth game. Kotian stuttered and let Nandrjog come close to parity at 9-7, but then he got his game together and won.
Results (all quarterfinals): Women: Aishwarya Kulkarni bt Varsha Pandey 11-0 12-10 11-9; Urvashi Joshi (Jindal) bt Simar Singh 11-0 11-4 11-3; Men: Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (TN) bt Karan Malik 11-9 11-3 11-3; Vrishabh Kotian (TN) bt Gaurav Nandrajog (Delhi) 11-6 11-8 4-11 11-9; Boys U-19: Vrishab Kotian (TN) bt Tushar Kothari 12-10 11-2 11-5; Shashi Pandey (Jindal) bt S Guhan 11-8 11-5 13-11; Madhav Dhingra (Otters Club) bt Samir Mistry 11-0 7-11 11-7 11-7; Girls U-13: Akansha Salunke (Goa) bt Diya Joukani 11-2 11-3 11-7; Nikita Joshi (Otters Club) bt Aditi Prasad 11-3 11-1 11-4; Neharika Balamurgan (TN) bt Vedika Arun 11-8 11-6 11-9; Ashita Bhengra (TN) bt Koel Shankar 11-7 9-11 11-7 11-6
Comments