Companies’ Vijay Kumar leaned again on his chair, clinching his fist and pointing to his pal the victory signal after he confidently put it throughout Rahul Baitha of Maharashtra, seeded (3/4) 11-6, 13-11, 11-3 within the males’s first spherical of the HCL-78th Senior Nationwide squash championships on the ISTA right here on Wednesday.
This was an enormous win for the 26-year-old, who’s a junior commissioned officer within the Military. He hadn’t touched the racquet for greater than two and a half years because of Covid-19 and a decrease again harm.
The inter-Companies event in Chandigarh in November this yr offered him with the required match follow. Vijay performed his finest reaching the person singles remaining and profitable the group gold for Military. “It was robust taking part in the group and particular person in Chandigarh. I misplaced to Sandeep Jangra within the singles remaining however beat him within the group remaining. That was actually satisfying. These matches had been good preparation for me,” Vijay informed Sportstar.
Truly, the final large event Vijay performed was the Senior Nationals in Chennai in February 2020. He’ll now tackle Sandeep Jangra within the second spherical on Thursday.
Tamil Nadu’s Navaneeth Prabhu, the second seed, escaped with a 10-12, 11-7, 11-8, 11th of September, 11-4 victory over Ravi Dixit of Haryana within the first spherical. Main by two video games to 1, Navaneeth took a time-out at 8-10 within the fourth recreation, after injuring his palm and proper knee. Although he misplaced the fourth recreation, Navaneeth retreived effectively to win the fifth recreation and the match. Navaneeth will subsequent meet Harinderpal Singh, a former champion.
In the meantime, prime seeds in women and men, Tamil Nadu’s Abhay Singh and Joshna Chinappa received with relative ease to enter the second spherical.
The outcomes (spherical of 16, first spherical)
Males: Abhay Singh (TN) bt Naveen Jangra (SSCB) 11-8, 11-2, 8-11, 11-4; Suraj Chand (Mah) bt Vikas Mehra (TN) 11-9, 10-12, 7-11, 11-4, 11-8; Sandeep Jangra (SSCB) bt Vaibhav Chauhan (SSCB) 11-3, 11-2, 11-7; Vijay Kumar (SSCB) bt Rahul Baitha (Mah) 11-6, 13-11, 11-3; Veer Chotrani (Mah) bt Kanhav Nanavati (TN) 11-8, 11-5, 11-5; S. Velavan (TN) bt Ranjit Singh (SSCB) 11-8, 11-5, 11-3; Harinderpal Singh (TN) bt Jamal Sakib (SSCB) 11-2, 11-8, 12-10; Navaneeth Prabhu (TN) bt Ravi Dixit (Har) 10-12, 11-7, 11-8, 11th of September, 11-4.
Girls: Joshna Chinappa (TN) bt Yashi Jain (Raj) 11-3, 11-6, 11-6; Anjali Semwal (Mah) bt Subhadra Nair (Ker) 11-2, 11-2, 11-3; Akansha Salunkhe (Goa) bt Rathika Seelan (TN) 11-4, 11-4, 11-5; Janet Vidhi (Mah) bt Shameena Riaz (TN) 11-3, 4-11, 11-6, 13-11; Urwashi Joshi (Mah) bt R. Pooja Arthi (TN) 11-5, 11-8, 11-7; Tanishka Jain (Mah) bt Sanika Choudhari (Del) 11th of September, 4-11, 11-1, 11-7; 11-5; Tanvi Khanna (Del) bt Sunita Patel (Mah) 11-3, 13-11, 11-2; Anahat Singh (Del) bt Sushmita Panigrahi (Goa) 11-2, 11-2, 11-0.
