Hamburg, April 16 (IANS) Joshna Chinappa and Veer Chotrani advanced in the Hamburg Open squash, while compatriots Velavan Senthilkumar and Tanvi Khanna bowed out in the opening round.
Former women’s world No. 10 Joshna eased past local challenger Saskia Beinhard 11-4, 11-5, 11-4, while men’s world No. 47 Chotrani beat Spain’s Ivan Perez 11-8, 11-9, 11-8 in the PSA Bronze-level event.
Men’s fifth seed Abhay Singh, who moved up to a career-best world ranking of 22 this week, and Ramit Tandon, the seventh seed, received first-round byes.
V. Senthilkumar, meanwhile, lost to R Tsukue of Japan 4-11, 9-11, 12-14. Hannah Craig of Ireland defeated Tanvi Khanna 11-5, 11-7, 13-11.
In other action, world No.258 Marek Panacek produced the biggest shock by ousting World No. 52 Adrian Waller to reach the second round of the bronze-level event.
“It’s been some time since I played this quality of squash in my opinion, I’m very happy with it and I’m looking forward to playing in the second round tomorrow. I was enjoying the moment on court and I played how I wanted,” Panacek said.
The wildcard in the women’s side of the draw, Maya Weisher also claimed a huge upset as the World No.153 downed World No.65 Hayley Ward 3-2.
The 19-year-old, who had never gone beyond the first round on home soil in two previous attempts, made it third time lucky against the South African to tee up a second round clash with No.4 seed Melissa Alves tomorrow.
Elsewhere, English pair Sam Todd and Patrick Rooney came through stern tests against Yassin Elshafei and David Bernet, respectively, with both winning 3-2.
In the women’s draw, Millie Tomlinson ended hopes for Katerina Tycova in a five-game thriller, while Marie Stephan recovered from 2-1 down to overcome Keira Marshall 3-2.
