Easy win for Zhafri in squash

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Malaysia’s Mohd. Hafiz Zhafri lived up to his top billing by easing past Tarun Mammen 11-4, 11-0, 11-1 in the first round of the Boys Under-13 to launch his campaign in the Indian Open Junior Squash Championship that commenced here on Tuesday.

Zhafri, the Asian U-13 champion, was hardly tested by Mammen who did all the running on a day that saw all the fancied players safely negotiating their first round hurdles.

Top seed in the Boys U-15 category, Adhitya Raghavan dropped just eight points while ousting Indranuj Gupta 11-5, 11-1, 11-2, as also Sandeep Ramachandran, the top ranked player in the Boys U-17 section, swept past Amit Thapa Magar 11-4, 11-4, 11-5.

In the Girls U-15 category, top seeded Akankasha Salunkhe from Goa led the field in the pre-quarterfinals defeating Rajasthan’s Divya Kirti Singh 11-1, 11-1, 11-3 while Hong Kong’s Lui Hiu Lam joined her with an easy 11-3, 11-2, 11-4 victory over Maharashtra’s Diya Sanghi.

Much of the opening day was taken up by competition in the various Boys singles categories with 82 entries in the Under-13, 58 in U-15 and 65 in U-17.