Harpal Singh Bedi in Jakarta

India men and Women teams opened there campaign with facile victories over their rivals in the squash competition of the 18th Asian Games here on Monday.

In the pool B, Indian men blanked host Indonesuia and Singapore with identical 3-0 margin While the women also thrashed Iran with same margin.

It turned out to be totally one sided contests with rivals teams just caving in without a semblance of fight.

Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu gave India a rousing start when he thumped Muhammed Nur Tastafyan of Indonesia 11-9.11-6,11-7 in just 22 minutes.

Mahesh Mangoarkar took a minute more than Sandhu to dismiss Andy Hasanudin 11-6, 11-2,11-5 to make it 2-0 .

Ramit Tandon outlasted LAKSANA Satria Bagus 11-4, 11-2, 11-6 in21 minutes to complete the 3-0 rout .

Later in the day Indian men trumped Singapore without conceding a set. It was again Harinder who started with flourish. He took 19 minutes to romp home against Timothy Leong Yew Sing 11-7,11-2,11-7.

Mahesh supplemented Harinder’s efforts by overwhelming Pang Ke Hoe 11-3,11-3,11-1 in 23 minutes. Ramit Tandon showed no mercy to Shan Mu Samnuel Kang 11-1,11-3,11-6 in 28 minutes to make it 3-0.

In the women section, Indians had an easy outing against Iran and ran away with 3-0 win.

Seasoned Joshana Chinappa dismissed Ghazal Shatafpur 11-7,11-5, 11-6 in barely 18 minutes. Here it may be said abut the Iranian girls that the stay put on the court and gave their best .It was obvious that Iranian women had not much of a clue about the sport but their determination was praise worthy.

Tanvi Khanna made it 2-0 as she defeated Hadrs Farzad 12-10,11-7 11-2 in 23 minute match and then Dipika Pallikal hardly brook a sweat as she gave a squash lesson to Fereshteh Eghtedar 11-2,11-6,11-4 to complete the tally,

Though the Indians had easy opening round outings but they will be tested when they will face tougher teams like Malaysia,Hong Kong and Japan in the league.

HSB