Squash Open: Title favourite Pradhan, Shahani ease past rivals

Top seed Abhishek Pradhan began his campaign on a high with an easy win over Punjab's Harkeerat Gill at the Otters Club Squash Open here on Tuesday.

Pradhan's state mate Tushar Shahani also had a field day, winning both his U-19 and men's matches to advance to the next round.

Pradhan, who got a first round bye, won his second round clash against Gill 11-7, 11-3, 11-3.

Shahani, who is seeded 5th in the men's category, trounced unseeded Husain Lunavad 11-3, 11-5, 11-4 to make it to the second round of the tournament.

Later in the day, he overcame the challenge of unseeded Rishabh Nigam of Maharashtra in the boys U-19 category 11-2, 11-4, 11-4 and advanced to the second round.

Other results: Boys U-17 (2nd round): Neel Joshi [1] bt Dev Dalmia 11-1 11-3 11-3; Sunny Yadav [9/16] bt Aaryan Agarwal 10-12 11-3 11-8 11-5; Jeh Pandole [9/16] bt Uday Rai 11-4 11-2 11-5; Aaryaman Jaising [5/8] bt Advaith Dike 11-2 11-1 11-7; Parthiv Yagnesh Natarajan [9/16] bt Vardhan Shorewala 11-2 11-2 11-1; Shreyas Mehta [2] bt Vaidya Adhiraj Singh Patel 11-3, 11-3, 11-2.