Squash Worlds: Anahat, Veer make fine debuts, four advance

Two Indian freshers at the PSA World Championships entered one of squash's most prestigious tournaments eager to soak in the experience.

- Rutvick Mehta

MUMBAI: Both walked away from their first outing knocking out two world No.28s.

Anahat Singh, ranked 62, and Veer Chotrani, ranked 57, had debuts to cherish as they upset American Marina Stefanoni and Englishman Declan James, respectively, to advance to the second round.

Two more Indians joined them from the five in Chicago, with world No.38 Abhay Singh overcoming world No.25 Nicolas Mueller of Switzerland and India's top-ranked Ramit Tandon getting past Japanese Ryunosuke Tsukue. Velavan Senthilkumar, another debutant, also had a bright start against defending champion and world No.3 Diego Elias before losing in four games (11-7, 7-11, 5-11, 3-11).

Chotrani was nearly stretched to a deciding fifth game, with former world No.15 and 2022 Commonwealth Games doubles gold medallist James saving four match points. At the fifth time of asking, the Indian came through 11-9, 9-11, 12-10, 16-14.