India's Velavan Senthilkumar storms into quarter-finals of Asian Squash Championships

Kuching [Malaysia], June 18 (ANI): India's Velavan Senthilkumar marched into the quarter-finals of the Asian Squash Championships 2025 after registering a comfortable victory at the Sarawak Squash Centre in Kuching, Malaysia, on Wednesday.
Up against Tomotaka Endo, Velavan Senthilkumar, 45th in the men's singles rankings, made light work of his Japanese squash player, beating him 3-0 (11-3, 11-1, 11-4) in the round of 16 of the men's division, as per Olympics.com.
Velavan Senthilkumar, who is now the only Indian left in the tournament, had beaten the People's Republic of China's Li Haizhen 3-0 (11-1, 11-6, 11-1) in the previous round on Tuesday.
However, world No. 153 Suraj Chand, who beat Athbi Hamad of the United Arab Emirates 3-0 (11-6, 11-9, 11-7) in the previous round, crashed out in the pre-quarterfinals.
Facing world No. 86 Ameeshenraj Chandaran of Malaysia, Suraj Chand put on a fight and won the opening game before losing the match 3-1 (5-11, 11-3, 11-4, 11-3).
The opening day of the Asian Squash Championships saw five Indian players across the men's and women's divisions crash out.
After receiving a bye, Pooja Arthi Raghu lost 3-0 (11-7, 11-9, 11-2) against Singapore's Au Yeong Wai Yhann in the second round.
Her compatriots Akanksha Salunkhe and Shameena Riaz also exited in the second round after receiving first-round byes.
World No. 69 Akanksha Salunkhe suffered an upset loss against Malaysia's Whitney Isabelle Wilson, 222nd in the women's singles squash rankings.
Despite starting positively and winning the first game, Akanksha Salunkhe went down 3-2 (5-11, 11-4, 6-11, 11-3, 11-8) against the Malaysian.
Shameena Riaz, 181st in the women's singles rankings, put up a fight but couldn't avoid a 3-1 (5-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-9) defeat against world No. 105 Akari Midorikawa of Japan.
Diwarkar Singh and Rahul Baitha were also ousted in the round of 32 stage of the men's division.
World No. 308 Diwarkar Singh was beaten 3-0 (11-2, 11-1, 11-3) by second seed Lau Tsz Kwan of Hong Kong China.
Rahul Baitha, 253rd in the squash rankings, also lost 3-0 (11-7, 11-9, 11-5) to world No. 129 Wong Chi Him of Hong Kong China.
India's Anahat Singh is not playing in the singles championship but will be part of the Asian Doubles Squash Championships, which starts next week. (ANI)