CHENNAI: It was a day of upsets on the second day of the third edition of the HCL SRFI Indian Tour Chennai leg at the Indian Squash Academy on Tuesday. The biggest surprise was the ousting of men's top seed Abhay Singh, who lost in three games to Abhishek Pradhan. Chennai's Akshaya Sri, meanwhile, continued her unexpected run.
After ousting sixth seed Sanika Choudhari on Monday, she got the better of third seed Sachika Balvani 11-9, 11-8, 11-2 on Tuesday to make her way into the semis. She will face top seed Sunayna Kuruvilla for a place in the final.
The other women's semifinal will be contested between second seed Tanvi Khanna and fourth seed Aparajitha Balamurukan. Apart from Pradhan, the other three men’s semifinalists are Velavan Senthilkumar, Rahul Baitha and Abhishek Agarwal.
Results: Men: (5) Velavan Senthilkumar bt (2) Harinder Pal Sandhu 9-4 retired; (4) Abhishek Agarwal bt Kanhav Nanavati 11-7, 11-5, 11-5; (7) Rahul Baitha bt (3) Aadit Zaveri 11-7, 11-6, 11-1; (6) Abhishek Pradhan bt (1) Abhay Singh 11-8, 11-6, 11-6 Women: (1) Sunayna Kuruvilla bt (5) Urwashi Joshi 17-15, 11-6, 11-13, 11-5; Akshaya Sri bt (3) Sachika Balvani 11-9, 11-8, 11-2; (4) Aparajitha Balamurukan bt (8) Abhisheka Shannon 13-11, 11-7, 11-7; (2) Tanvi Khanna bt (7) Janet Vidhi 11-4, 11-4, 11-6