Rising squash ace Sandeep Ramachandran upsets eighth seed to reach quarters of Tasmanian Open

19-year-old Indian squash player Sandeep Ramachandran is making rapid strides on the PSA circuit. The Bahrain-born youngster reached the quarter-finals of the $5,000 Tasmanian Open in Devonport, Australia on Friday.

Ramachandran, who is a qualifier at this tournament, put up a gutsy display to upset the eighth seed and local hope Joel Luca, 12-10, 12-10, 11-7 in just 28 minutes. The World No. 273 will next meet the second seed Rhys Dowling – a player ranked 133 places above him – for a place in the semi-finals.

The Indian started the tournament with two solid wins in the qualifying rounds. In the first round, he accounted for Australia’s Jack Hudson 11-3, 11-7, 11-2 and followed it up with an 11-9, 11-7, 11-4 victory over another Australian Matthew McConnell.

Also read: Joshna Chinappa breaks into top 10 in PSA World Squash Rankings

Sandeep is currently coached by the Dubai-based Maqbool Khawaja and is one of the brightest young talents around. He put up a giant-killing performance at the Sub-junior Nationals last year in the U-19 category to reach the final where he lost to Velavan Senthilkumar.

He has been playing regularly on the PSA Tour since January and his steady progress has seen him break into the top 300 this June for the first time in his career.

This is his second PSA quarter-final in a row after reaching the last-eight at the NSW Open in Sydney just a little over a week back.

About the author

Sudeshna is a veteran Indian Sports and International Tennis journalist as well as editor at Sportskeeda. She has an overall experience of over 10 years with top publications like The Bridge, Fox Sports Asia, and gained a keen interest in Indian sports since the 2002 Commonwealth and Asian Games when she was in school.

Sudeshna holds a Master's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. She attends tournaments regularly and being a highly experienced journalist, she ensures she only contacts the correct people from her network for the most authentic information to be put in her articles.

Sudeshna’s favorite Indian athlete is PV Sindhu owing to her big-tournament performances. She also admires Tennis legend Rafael Nadal for his resilience and has witnessed the Spaniard in action at the French Open, due to which, Roland Garros is her all-time favorite Grand Slam tournament.

Neeraj Chopra’s gold medal win at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics made a lasting impact on Sudeshna. She has also interviewed him along with Badminton star Chirag Shetty and several other sports personalities. She has done on-ground reporting on multiple ITF tournaments along with the Premier Badminton League, Asian Boxing Championships and the Davis Cup.

When not using her skills and years of experience in crafting compelling content, Sudeshna likes to read, watch movies and travel.

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Edited by Staff Editor