Maharashtra duo Sarah Vethekar and Avinash Yadav won thrillers over higher seeds Diksha Aurobindo and Navaneeth Prabhu, both of Tamil Nadu, in the 74th CCI-Western India Open Squash Tournament, at the Cricket Club of India.
Fifth seed Sarah lived dangerously right through to the four-set nail-biter after dropping the opener, and rallied to a hard-earned 3-11, 12-10, 12-10, 11-9 win over third seed Diksha to enter the girls under-15 semi-finals.
Eighth seed Avinash won the most gripping contest of the day when he stunned fourth seed Prabhu 8-11, 11-13, 13-11, 11-9, 11-9 in a thriller that went down to the wire to advance to the boys under-17 semi-finals.
Women’s top seed Urwashi Joshi beat Sanika Choudhari 11-4, 11-6, 11-4 to enter semi-finals. Maharashtra’s girls under-15 top seed Aishwarya Khubchandani beat Anjali Semwal 11-1, 11-5, 11-6 in the quarter-final.
