Former junior national champion Ramit Tandon pulled off a surprise by ousting 9/16 seed Joshua Masters of England in three straight games to enter the second round of the USD 70,000 CCI International JSW Indian Squash Circuit 2019 in Mumbai on Tuesday.
The 26-year-old finance professional-turned squash pro from Kolkata, currently ranked 68th on the PSA tour and a member of the country’s Commonwealth Games squad last year in Gold Coast, Australia, stunned the 52nd-ranked Masters 11-9 11-6 11-8 in 36 minutes at the Cricket Club of India.
However, the Indian challenge got diluted when former national champion Harinder Pal Sandhu pulled out of the PSA event citing an injury. He was drawn to take on Ben Coleman of England, who got a walkover into round two.
In some other first round match-ups, Egypts Youssef Ibrahim got past Welshman Peter Creed 11-8, 11-13, 11-8, 11-6 in 47 minutes, his compatriot Mohamed Reda ousted Dimitri Steinmann of Switzerland 8-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-9 in 55 minutes and Iker Pajares Bernabeu got past Spanish compatriot Edmon Lopez 11-7, 11-3, 11-4 in 43 minutes.