Tushar Shahani shocked Pranay Jain to enter the boys' under-17 quarter-finals in the 2-Star Matunga Gymkhana All India Junior Open Squash tournament, here today.
Ranked lower down the order at 9/16, last year's Hong Kong junior open winner Shahani outclassed Jain, seeded 3/4, 17-15, 11-9, 8-11, 11-8 in a close contest that could have gone either way on a day of upsets and close encounters.
In another exciting tie, Jindal's Sandeep Paswan, ranked 3/4, was taken the distance by unseeded Sambhav Anand of Delhi before snatching a 10-12, 11-3, 10-12, 11-1, 11-4 win, while top seed Abhay Singh of Tamil Nadu and second seed Aryaman Adik of Maharashtra sailed through.
In another upset, Shloke Sahay, ranked 9/16, beat Raunak Advani, ranked 3/4, 11-4, 13-11, 5-11, 3-11, 11-6, after leading 2-0 in a boys' under-15 pre-quarter-final.
In the same group, 5/8-ranked Vivaan Jaikishan rallied to a hard-fought 3-2 win over 9/16-ranked Shanay Sanghavi of Bombay Gymkhana.
Unseeded Rishika Jain of MP rallied from 1-2 to stun 5/8-ranked Mannat Shah of Maharashtra in five games to enter the girls under-11 quarter-finals.
Results (all from Maharashtra unless stated otherwise):
Girls U-11 (Pre-quarter-finals): 1-Yuvna Gupta bt Nayna Taneja 11-3, 11-5, 11-3; Rishika Jain (MP) bt Mannat Shah 11-9, 7-11, 2-11, 11-8, 11-4; Jiya Chotrani bt Tanya Bafna 9-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-4; Archita Singh bt Kaavya Bansal 11-5, 11-4, 11-5; Sonya Bajaj bt Shireen Shaikh (TN) 11-1, 11-3, 11-8; 2-Pooja Arthi R (TN) bt Sakshi Karnani 11-1, 11-3, 11-1.
Boys U-11 (Pre-quarter-finals): 1-Paarth Ambani bt Aditya Gupta 11-0, 11-0, 11-0; Jaivir Singh Dhillon (Del) bt Rutva Samant 11-5, 11-9, 11-9; Sharan Punjabi bt Dhairya Shah 11-7, 11-4, 11-9; Vivaan Shah bt Siddhant Rewari 11-1, 11-1, 11-6; Om Semwal bt Mohd Farhan Farook (TN) 4-11, 11-5, 11-5, 11-1; Yuvraj Wadhwani bt Arnav Tevatia 11-3, 11-1, 11-6; Anush Kar bt Parth Dogra 11-3, 11-1, 11-1; 2-Parthiv N Yagnesh (TN) bt Devay Mehta 11-3, 11-3, 11-9.
