India’s Abhay Singh, ranked 149th in the world, has shown promise and potential. The 22-year-old, unseeded here, provided yet another glimpse of his growing stature by shocking fourth-seeded Frenchman Sebastien Bonmalais 11-7, 11-7, 11-8 to progress to the quarterfinals in the PSA Challenger Tour squash tournament here on Tuesday.
Against Bonmalais, ranked 87 places higher than him, Abhay played a largely error-free game.
“I was playing my best squash before the lockdown and I feel like I’ve just picked up from there,” he said after the match.
Abhay and Mahesh Mangaonkar, the top seed, are the only Indians remaining in the men’s draw.
Mahesh eased past Omar El Kattan of Egypt 11-7, 11-7, 11-5 in the pre-quarterfinals.
It was a day when all the seeded players,barring Sebastien and the fifth seeded Urwashi Joshi (women), sailed into the last eight.
The results (round-of-16, Indians unless mentioned otherwise):
Men: Yahya Elnawasany (Egy) bt Seif Shenawy (Egy) 11-7, 11-5, 11-9; Karim El Hammamy (Egy) bt Aadit Zaveri 13-11, 12-10, 11-3; Abhay Singh bt Sebastien Bonmalais (Fra) 11-7, 11-7, 11-8; Moustafa El Sirty (Egy) bt Velavan Senthilkumar 3-11, 10-12, 11-6, 11-9, 11-1; Mahesh Mangaonkar bt Omar El Kattan (Egy) 11-7, 11-7, 11-5.
Todd Harrity (USA) bt Vladislav Titov (Rus) 11-1, 11-9, 11-5; Mazen Gamal (Egy) bt Navaneeth Prabhu 11-6, 11-8, 9-11, 12-10; Aly Hussein (Egy) bt David Baillargeon (Can) 6-11, 13-11, 11-4, 14-12.
Women: Aparajitha Balamurukan bt Yoshna Singh 11-9, 17-19, 11-6, 11-6; Malak Kamal (Egy) bt Urwashi Joshi 12-10, 11-5, 11-5; Tanvi Khanna bt R. Pooja Arthi 11-7, 11-7, 11-2; Hana Moataz (Egy) bt Abhisheka Shannon 11-2, 11-5, 11-4.
Sachika Balvani bt Janet Vidhi 11-9, 11-7, 11-5; Sunayna Kuruvilla bt Vasudha Surange 11-5, 11-4, 12-10; Rana Ismail (Egy) bt Varvara Esina (Rus) 11-5, 11-9, 11-2; Sanika Choudhari bt Shameena Riaz 11-5, 11-9, 11-4.