Squash: Indian men, women enter quarterfinals

India’s men’s and women’s squash teams advanced to the quarterfinals of the Asian Games on Monday, with the women edging past Japan 2-1 in a hard-fought tie and the men blanking South Korea 3-0.

The Indian women, seeded third and bronze medallists at the previous edition, had to dig deep after lead player Anahat Singh lost a five-game battle to world number six Satomi Watanabe.

Veteran Joshna Chinappa, competing in a record seventh Asian Games, put India ahead with an 11-1, 11-8, 11-9 win over Erisa Sano.

Anahat then faced Watanabe for the second time in three days. The 17th-ranked Indian, who had beaten the Japanese in the individual semifinals before going on to win a historic silver, could not repeat that result and lost 11-8, 8-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-9 in 43 minutes.

Tanvi Khanna sealed the tie for India, defeating Akari Midorikawa 12-10, 11-9, 4-11, 12-10.

India had earlier opened its campaign with a 3-0 win over China.

The men, who won gold at the previous Asian Games in China, also had a comfortable outing against South Korea.

Velavan Senthilkumar defeated Jooyoung Na 11-6, 11-4, 11-7 in the opening singles before singles silver medallist Abhay Singh beat Jeongmin Ryu 11-4, 11-7, 11-1.

Veer Chotrani completed the 3-0 win with an 11-6, 11-4, 11-2 victory over Seojin Oh in the third singles.

Earlier in the day, the Indian men had also registered a 3-0 win, with Suraj Chand, Chotrani and Senthilkumar all winning their matches against China.

Chand beat Du Shaoqian 11-4, 11-3, 12-10 in 30 minutes, while Chotrani defeated U Haizhen 11-5, 11-5, 11-3 in under 20 minutes.

Senthilkumar completed the tie with an 11-3, 11-2, 11-4 win over Zhou Penglin.

The Indian women had earlier needed a comeback to beat China 2-1.

Sameena Riaz squandered a two-game advantage against Ziuan Yin, losing 11-8, 11-6, 9-11, 9-11, 12-14 in a 41-minute battle.

Riaz, daughter of former India Asian Games hockey gold medallist and Olympian Mohammed Riaz, was unable to close out the match.

Tanvi restored parity with an 11-3, 11-5, 11-5 win over Zhang Yuning in 17 minutes, before Chinappa completed the comeback by defeating Liu Ziyi 12-10, 11-4, 11-6 in 22 minutes.