Nagoya: 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. IANS
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