Harinder Pal Sandhu enters main draw at Squash World Championships 2015

Harinder Pal Sandhu in action at the World Championships (image courtesy: World Squash Championships)

Indian players had mixed fortunes in the final round of qualifying at the $325k Men’s World Squash Championships in Bellevue, Washington on Saturday as Harinder Pal Sandhu won his match but Mahesh Mangaonkar crashed out.

World No. 71 Sandhu booked his berth in the main draw after beating 84th-ranked American Chris Hanson 11-4, 12-10, 11-4, while the 57th-ranked Mangaonkar lost 6-11, 5-11, 8-11 to World No. 72 Andrew Wagih of Egypt.

Sandhu, playing at his first World Open, began the contest with a lot of confidence and easily clinched the opening game against his lower-ranked American rival. Hanson, however, came back to make matters more difficult for the Indian star.

Sandhu was up 9-4 in the second game but Hanson went on a six-point burst to lead 10-9. Nevertheless, the Indian managed to remain calm and eke out the game 12-10. The third game was simply one-way traffic which Sandhu thoroughly dominated. The World No. 71 needed just 32 minutes for the win.

He will now face World No. 25 Nicolas Mueller of Switzerland in the first round of the main draw on Sunday.

As a result, Sandhu joins World No. 17 Saurav Ghosal as the second Indian in the main draw of the 2015 World Championships. Ghosal will begin his own challenge at the prestigious meet on Sunday. The India No. 1 faces World No. 20 and Qatar Classic semi-finalist Ryan Cuskelly of Australia in Round 1.

The last time the two played was at the Motor City Open in January, 2015 which Saurav won 3-1.