Top seed Neel Joshi of Maharashtra posted an easy victory against state mate Anush Kar in a boys under-13 third round match of All-India NSCI Junior Open Squash tournament here today.
Joshi won 11-1 11-1 11-1 to enter the pre-quarterfinals.
In another third round match, second seed Jeh Pandole, also from Maharashtra, recorded a tough 11-8 11-9 11-8 win against state rival Mohit Bhatt, to join Joshi in the last 16 of the SRFI 4-Star Ranking event.
Tamil Nadu's Kanhav Nanavati, the joint third seed, had quite a battle on hand before getting past Aryan Khandelwal of Madhya Pradesh in a five-game thriller.
Nanavati, trailing 1-2, did well to win the next two to clinch a deserving 10-12 11-3 9-11 11-8 11-9 victory.
In another match that went the distance, Aaryaman Jaising of Maharashtra staved off a spirited challenge from compatriot Om Semwal before snatching a close 3-2 win.
Aaryaman prevailed 7-11 11-9 9-11 11-8 12-10 to set up pre-quarterfinal clash with Joshi.
In boys' under-11 second round ties, Akshat Agarwal of West Bengal sidelined Kabir Chawla of Maharashtra 11-1 11-5 11-4, while Aditya Chandani of Maharashtra outclassed Krish Golcha of West Bengal 11-8 11-6 11-2.
Other results:
Boys' under-13 (3rd round ): Lakshit Bohra (RJ) bt Sunny Yadav (MH) 9-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-4; Aakash Gupta (KA) bt Kabir Mehra (MH) 11-3, 11-6, 11-3; Tanay Punjabi (MH) bt Amaan Habibulla (MH) 11-0, 11-4, 11-0; Mahanshu Gupta (RJ) bt Mir Mehta (MH) 11-6, 11-4, 11-3; Shreyas Mehta (MH) bt Rana Keshav Thakkar (MH) 11-6, 15-13, 11-2; Arman Darukhanawalla (MH) bt Siddhant Sinha (HR) 11-9, 11-0, 11-2; Parthiv N Yagnesh (TN) bt Mihit Mahale (MH) 11-2, 5-11, 11-5, 12-10; Ishaan Singh (RJ) bt Shreyansh Agrawal (MH) 11-5, 11-4, 11-4; Athrva Yadav (DL) bt Arnav Mandhana (MH) 7-11, 11-3, 11-9, 11-7; Yash Salunkhe (GA) bt Druv Vazirani (MH) 7-11, 11-5, 13-11, 11-7; Jay Vaknalli (MH) bt Uday Pandey (MH) 11-7, 11-5, 11-4.
