HCL SRFI Indian Tour: Abhay Singh beats fourth-seeded Frenchman Sebastien Bonmalais, Mahesh Mangaonkar wins

Chennai: India’s Abhay Singh posted an upset win over fourth-seeded Sebastien Bonmalais of France in a second-round men’s singles match at the 2nd HCL SRFI Indian Tour - Chennai leg 1 on Tuesday. The Indian notched up an 11-7, 11-7, 11-8 win over the Frenchman in 42 minutes. Top-seeded Indian Mahesh Mangaonkar and second-seed Todd Harrity (USA) scripted easy wins over their respective opponents Omar El Kattan (Egypt) and Vladislav Titov (Russia). Canada’s David Baillargeon, seeded eighth, crashed out after losing to Egypt’s Aly Hussein in a four-game encounter that lasted 75 minutes. In the women’s event, the top-seed Sunayna Kuruvilla breezed past Indian compatriot Vasudha Surange, beating her 11-5, 11-4, 12-10 in just 17 minutes. The PSA Challenger Tour event, which was scheduled to begin on Saturday but was postponed after two players tested positive for COVID-19, got underway on Monday. The tournament, which was put off by a couple of days to enable another round of testing of players, will now conclude on 2 April. The Chennai leg consists of a men’s PSA Challenger 20 competition and a women’s PSA Challenger 10 tournament. The HCL-SRFI Indian Tour is the first Challenger event to be hosted since the pandemic. Results: Second round: Women: Aparajitha Balamurukan (India-X6) beat Yoshna Singh (India) 11-9, 17-19, 11-6, 11-6; Malak Kamal (Egypt) beat Urwashi Joshi (India-X5) 12-10, 11-5, 11-5; Tanvi Khanna (India-X3) beat Pooja Arthi R (India) 11-7, 11-7, 11-2; Hana Moataz (Egypt-X2) beat Abhisheka Shannon (India) 11-2, 11-5, 11-4. Sachika Balvani (India-X4) beat Janet Vidhi (India) 11-9, 11-7, 11-5; Sunayna Kuruvilla (India-X1) beat Vasudha Surange (India) 11-5, 11-4, 12-10; Rana Ismail (Egypt-X7) beat Varvara Esina (Russia) 11-5, 11-9, 11-2; Sanika Choudhari (India) beat Shameena Riaz (India) 11-5, 11-9, 11-4. Men: Yahya Elnawasany (Egypt-X7) beat Seif Shenawy (Egypt) 11-7, 11-5, 11-9; Karim El Hammamy (Egypt-X3) beat Aadit Zaveri (India) 13-11, 12-10, 11-3; Abhay Singh (India) beat Sebastien Bonmalais (France-X4) 11-7, 11-7, 11-8; Moustafa El Sirty (Egypt-X6) beat Velavan Senthilkumar (India) 3-11, 10-12, 11-6, 11-9, 11-1. Mahesh Mangaonkar (India-X1) beat Omar ElKattan (Egypt) 11-7, 11-7, 11-5; Todd Harrity (USA-X2) beat Vladislav Titov (Russia) 11-1, 11-9, 11-5; Mazen Gamal (Egypt-X5) beat Navaneeth Prabhu (India) 11-6, 11-8, 9-11, 12-10; Aly Hussein (Egypt) beat David Baillargeon (Canada-X8) 6-11, 13-11, 11-4, 14-12.