India's Siddharth Suchde kept the country's flag flying high, even as Saurav Ghosal and Gaurav Nandrajog lost their matches from winning positions in the second round of the 12th World junior men's squash championship in Chennai on Wednesday.
Suchde, the first Indian ever to progress to the second round of a World championship, made short work of Salem Faiz Mohammad of Kuwait, winning 9-2, 9-0, 9-4 in just 17 minutes.
He will take on Peter David Creed of Wales, who got a walk-over from Pakistan's Arshad Iqbal Burki, (9 to 16 seed).
Though Burki had entered the individual event, he left for home, stating that his mother is ill.
However, there was talk that Burki left for "other reasons".
George Miers, the technical delegate, told reporters that the Pakistan team management had informed him of the situation and that Burki was allowed to leave after a five-member committee, including himself, was convinced of the matter.
While Suchde's win was on the cards, Ghosal and Nandrajog created a stir before biting the dust from winning positions.
Ghosal, who was pitted against close friend and sparring partner Dylan Bennet of the Netherlands, with who he had trained for over a fortnight in Holland in July before the recent Busan Asian Games, went down 9-7, 3-9, 9-5, 7-9, 8-10 in one of the longest matches of the day.
Nandrajog took the match to the decider against the highly-rated Shah Nawaz of Pakistan, who was given a bye into the second round, but lost 9-0, 5-9, 2-9, 9-7, 7-9.
The Nandrajog-Nawaz match saw supporters of both India and Pakistan on the edge of their seats as both players matched each other with winners. However, Nandrajog, leading 7-4 in the decider, wilted under pressure.
Ghosal, a wristy player, was at his best against Bennet in the fourth game. Trailing at 2-7, he finished off rallies with smashes to quickly rise to 6-7.
In the fifth and deciding game, Ghosal scored points in quick succession to lead 7-2. He served for the match at 8-3, but Bennet saved the point thrice and then forced his rival on the receiving end. Ghosal could save only one match-point from Bennet.
Christopher Gordon of the US, the only one amongst the 25 players, including the top 16 seeds, who directly entered the second round, fell by the wayside. He lost to Hungary's Mark Krajesak 2-9, 2-9, 7-9.
Top seeded James Willstrop and Peter Barker (second) both of England, scored easy wins, while third seeded Moustafa Essam of Egypt dropped a game to Yashvardhan Singh of India before winning at 9-6, 7-9, 9-2, 9-0.
Pakistan's Majid Khan (4th seed) played one the quickest matches to post a win without yielding any point against Kenya's Rohan Lall.
