Jaipur : Top seed Tushar Shahani of Maharashtra stormed into the semi-finals of the Jaipur Junior Open squash tournament at the Jaipur Club courts outplaying Rajasthan’s Jairaj Singh who put up a tough fight before bowing out.
Jairaj Singh, an upcoming Jaipur boy was not overawed by his top seed rival. He put up a great fight before going down 9-11, 7-11 and 2-11. Earlier, Jairaj caused a minor upset by defeating fifth seed Tejas Chawal in four games in pre-quaterfinals. .
The fifth seed Jaipur boy Utkrash Baheti created the biggest upset in the boys’ U-15 category when he overpowered third seed Yash Fadte (Goa) in a tough five setter to clinched a berth in semi-finals, where he will face top seed Tushar Shahani. Fadte began the first game solidly by dominating the court and took the game at 11-7. But Baheti turned the tables on his opponent by claiming next two games at 13-11 and 11-7. At this stage it looked as if the match was going the Baheti way but Fadte came back strongly in the fourth game and won it at 11-5 to take the match into the decider.
The fifth game saw Baheti playing more positively by cutting down his errors and inducing his opponent to commit more mistakes. Fadte put up a brave fight but was no match against much rejuvenated Baheti who put the issue beyond his opponent by winning the decider and the match at 11-8.
In the girls section, Miraya Gupta of Maharashtra, the fifth seed defeated Nandini Kuchhal 11-9, 11-4, 10-12, 13-11 in the U-13 girl’s. In the boy’s U-17 Aryaman Adik of Maharashtra outclassed Dev Vazirani also of Maharashtra 11-6, 12-10, 8-11, 7-11, 12-10 and in the same category Maharashtra’s Chaitanya Shah defeated Ramit Bhargava of Rajasthan 11-7, 9-11, 11-4,
11-9.
