Chennai Squash Challenger: Abhisheka Shannon advances to second round

India's Abhisheka Shannon defeated compatriot Akshaya Sri in four games to advance to the second round of the women's event at the 2nd HCL SRFI Indian Tour - Chennai leg 1 here on Monday.

The PSA Challenger Tour event scheduled to begin on Saturday was postponed as two players tested positive for Covid-19, got underway on Monday. The tournament, which was put off by a couple of days to enable another round of testing of players, will now conclude on April 2.

In the match against Akshaya, Shannon won the first two games easily before her opponent bounced back to take the third. She had to ward off a stiff challenge from Akshaya in the fourth game to secure a 11-1, 11-6, 8-11, 14-12 win and set up a second-round clash against second-seeded Egyptian Hana Moataz.

There were wins for Shameena Riaz who beat fellow Indian Tiana Parasrampuria in a five-game thriller, winning the decider 13-11. In the men's draw, Indian players Navaneeth Prabhu and Seif Shenway advanced to the second round while it was the end of the road for Rounak Yadav, who lost to Russian Vladislav Titov, and Ravi Dixit.

The Chennai leg consists of a men's PSA Challenger 20 competition and a women's PSA Challenger 10 tournament. The HCL-SRFI Indian Tour is the first Challenger event to be hosted since the pandemic.

Results:

Men:

Navaneeth Prabhu (India) beat Yash Fadte (India) 11-9, 9-11, 11-5, 11-5; Seif Shenawy (Egypt) beat Veer Chotrani (India) 11-7, 11-9, 10-12, 11-6; Vladislav Titov (Russia) beat Rounak Yadav (India) 11-5, 11-2, 11-6; Aly Hussein (Egypt) beat Ravi Dixit (India) 11-6, 11-3, 11-6.

Women:

Shameena Riaz (India) beat Tiana Parasrampuria (India) 11-7, 11-4, 10-12, 8-11, 13-11; Abhisheka Shannon (India) beat Akshaya Sri (India) 11-1, 11-6, 8-11, 14-12; Pooja Arthi R (India) beat Radhika Rathore (India) 12-10, 11-9, 11-8; Varvara Esina (Russia) beat Rathika Seelan (India) 11-7, 9-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-4; Yoshna Singh (India) beat Aaradhana Kasturiraj (India) 11-4, 11-8, 11-5; Vasudha Surange (India) beat Bijli Darvada (India) 11-3, 11-6, 11-0.