India’s Ramit Tandon and Mahesh Mangaonkar, the seventh and eighth seeds at Tring Open, made it to the quarterfinal but another Indian, Abhay Singh, who had come through the qualifying phase bowed out in the the pre-quarterfinal of the PSA world series event in England on Wednesday.
Ramit, who had won a PSA title earlier this month, was in good touch as he ousted Pakistan’s Ahsan Ayaz in straight games 11-2, 11-3, 11-5, inside half hour. But Mahesh had a testing time against Belgian Jan Van Den Herrewegen. Mahesh dropped the first game before regaining form to carve out a 10-12, 11-4, 11-3, 11-7 win.
Abhay who had made it to the main draw after a drawn out five-gamer in the qualifying round, was pitted against the top seed Adrian Waller of England straightaway in the main draw. The Indian showed some fight but the Englishman managed a facile 11-4, 16-14, 11-6 win.
Ramit, currently ranked 65th in the world, now has the unenviable task of facing Waller in the quarter-final and will look to upset the top seed and world No 44. Mahesh will take on Wales’ Peter Creed, the fourth seed, in his last eight encounter.
In Guatamela, Vikram Malhotra lost out in the first round of the main draw on Wednesday, facing world No 35 Zahed Mohhamed 9-11, 13-11, 11-8, 11-7 in at the Torneo Internacional PSA tournament. Malhotra had a direct entry into the main draw but couldn’t progress past the Egyptian.
In Auckland, Sachika Irshwin Balvani lost to Sneha Sivakumar from Singapore 11-6, 8-11, 11-3, 11-1 in the final qualifying round at Court Tech Women’s PSA Classic. The 24-year-old Indian defeated New Zealand’s Rhiarne Taiapa 4-11, 4-11, 10-12 in the opening round but fell at the final hurdle before the main draw against top seed (qualification) Sneha.
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