Abhay Singh and Velavan Senthilkumar initiated their title defence with a dominant performance at the HCL National Doubles Squash Championships in Chennai.
Top seeded pair of Abhay Singh and Velavan Senthilkumar began their title defence in men's doubles with a convincing 11-4, 11-2 win over Shubham and Vedant Patel in the quarter-finals of the 3rd HCL National Doubles Squash Championships in Chennai on Thursday.
Abhay, who also won the mixed doubles crown last year with Anahat Singh, is partnering with Rathika Seelan this time in the absence of the talented Delhi teenager.
The second seeded pair advanced to the last-four stage with a hard-fought 10-12, 11-8, 11-9 victory over Ravi Dixit and Janet Vidhi.
Men's doubles (quarters): 1-Abhay Singh/ Velavan Senthilkumar bt Shubham/ Vedant Patel 11-4, 11-2; Ravi Dixit/ Vikas Mehra bt Mathew Godwin/ Navaneeth Prabhu 11-7, 10-12, 11-7; Guhan Senthilkumar/ Sandhesh PR bt Harinder Sandhu/ Om Semwal 11-7, 2-11, 11-8; 2-Rahul Baitha/ Suraj Chand bt Dinesh R/ Meyappan L 11-6, 11-6.
Women's doubles (Group A, round-robin): 1-Joshna Chinappa/ Rathika Seelan bt Sahana Kalaivanan/ Sangamitra Shanmugham 11-2, 11-7; Ananya Narayan/ Anika Dubey bt Sahana Kalaivanan/ Sangamitra Shanmugham 11-2, 11-1.
Mixed doubles (quarters): 1-Velavan Senthilkumar/ Joshna Chinappa bt Roshan Rajkumar/ Sahana Kalaivanan 11-4, 11-5; Suraj Chand/ Nirupama Dubey bt Navaneeth Prabhu/ Pooja Arthi 11-9, 12-10; 2-Abhay Singh/ Rathika Seelan bt Ravi Dixit/Janet Vidhi 10-12, 11-8, 11-9; Rahul Baitha/ Anika Dubey bt Sandhesh PR/ Shameena Riaz 10-12, 11-6, 11-8.