Joshana Chinappa, Harinder Sandhu advance in Australian Open

Melbourne: Following her Victorian Open triumph last week, Joshana Chinappa breezed into the second round of the USD 27,000 Australian Open squash event alongside compatriots Mahesh Mangaonkar and Harinder Pal Sandhu here on Wednesday.

While Chinappa showed her good touch, as did Sandhu and Mangaonkar, the other two Indians, Kush Kumar and Sachika Ingale bit the dust.

Playing at the same venue where she had won the Victorian Open, the sixth seeded Chinappa made short work of Estonian Alexia Clonda in straight games. Ingale on the other hand found it tough against the South African seeded player Siyoli Waters.

In the men's section, Sandhu in the bottom half dropped one game enroute to his win over wild card entrant Joshua Larkin of Australia.

The sixth seeded Mangaonkar too had a game grabbed away by Rhys Dowling of Australia before racing to a win. Kumar, who had to come via the qualifiers path, started well but dropped off soon after to Rex Hedrick, the eighth seed from Australia.

The results: first round: men: Harinder Pal Sandhu bt Joshua Larkin (Aus) 11-8, 6-11, 11-3, 11-9; Mahesh Mangaonkar bt Rhys Dowling (Aus) 11-4, 9-11, 11-0,11-9; Rex Hedrick (Aus) bt Kush Kumar 9-11, 11-3, 11-6, 11-3 ( women): Joshna Chinappa bt Alexia Clonda (Estonia) 11-6, 11-6, 11-3; Siyoli Waters (S Africa) bt Sachika Ingale 12-10, 11-8, 11-9.