Teenager Yash Fadte of Goa stunned third seed Abhishek Agarwal in a long-drawn tie to enter the semi finals of the 43rd Maharashtra State Men’s Squash tournament in Mumbai on Wednesday.
The 16-year-old Fadte had an easy start in the quarter final clash as he won the first game 11-2, but Abhishek was quick to make a comeback and took the second game 11-4.
Fadte bounced back with a 11-7 victory in the third game, but the teenager was not able to maintain consistency and lost the penultimate game 9-11.
With the match tied at 2-all, it was anyone’s match. However, Fadte, who impressed during the recent World Junior Championships in Chennai, kept his wits and clinched the decider 11-8 to advance to the last four for a face-off against top seed Mahesh Mangaonkar.
Mangoankar eased into the semis, making few mistakes on his way to a 11-7, 11-5, 11-2 victory over Vijay Kumar of Chennai.
Also advancing was second seed Abhishek Pradhan, who defeated Ranjit Singh with an identical scoreline.
He would meet No 4 Gaurav Nandrajog of Delhi for a place in the summit clash.
Results:
Men’s quarter finals:
Mahesh Mangaonkar [1] bt Vijay Kumar [9/16] 11-7 11-5 11-2;
Yash Fadte [9/16] bt Abhishek Agarwal [3]11-2 4-11 11-7 9-11 11-8;
Gaurav Nandrajog [4] bt Sandeep Jangra 13-11 11-8 11-3;
Abhishek Pradhan [2] bt Ranjit Singh 11-2 11-7 11-5.