Ritwik exits; Joshna, Sourav win

Saurav Ghosal and Siddharth Suchde were the only Indians left in the men's singles event after two of their compatriots, including former national champion Ritwik Bhattacharya, crashed out in the second round of the Asian Squash Championships in Kuwait.

Among the women, national champion Joshna Chinappa and fellow Indian Anwesha Reddy also moved into the second round.

Ghosal advanced to the third round of the prestigious tournament after beating Kuwaiti Nasser Al Rashed 9-3, 9-1, 9-2 in the opening round and another local hope Ali B Al-Ramezi 9-2, 9-2, 9-2 in the second round on Wednesday.

The reigning national champion will now take on Hong Kong's Max Lee in the third round.

Suchde, meanwhile, first got the better of Iranian Mahd Reza Sadeghpour 9-6, 9-5, 9-1 in a 44-minute contest before defeating Taipei's Huang Cheng Yao in the second round.

However, Ritwik and Naresh Kumar crashed out in the second round. Ritwik breezed past Kuwaiti Shallan Ahmed 9-7, 9-3, 9-1 in merely 19 minutes before Kuwaiti Mohd Y Hajeyah tamed the Indian 9-4, 3-9, 9-5, 6-9, 10-8 in a 93-minute battle.

Naresh suffered a similar fate. After a comfortable 9-0, 9-3, 9-5 win over Sri Lankan Aruna Hewage, he was outplayed 1-9, 4-9, 1-9 by Hong Kong's Wong Wai Hang.

In the women's section, where India is without British Junior Open champion Dipika Pallikal, who was omitted from the team for not attending a mandatory camp, both Joshna and Anwesha moved into the second round.

Joshna thrashed China's Wu Zhen Zhen 9-0, 9-4, 9-1 in just 17 minutes to set up a clash with Pakistan's Maria Toor, while Anwesh defeated Taipei's Hsieh Ssu Han 9-1, 9-0, 9-1 and will now be up against Malaysian Sharon Wee.

Harita Om Prakash and Surabhi Misra, however, crashed out in the opening round.

While Harita lost Japan's Chnatsu Matsui 4-9, 0-9, 3-9, Surbhi went down to Hong Kong's Christina Mak 0-9, 6-9, 7-9.