Sharma Shakes Up Chennai Open Seedings

Parth Sharma provided unexpected additional local interest in the quarter-finals of the ICL Chennai Open when he upset sixth seed Yasunori Ishiwata in today's first round of the PSA Tour event at ICL Squash Academy in the Indian city of Chennai.

The 18-year-old from Chennai, in only his maiden year on the Tour, beat his seeded Japanese opponent 11-5, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7 in 36 minutes - and will now face Hong Kong's Dick Lau for a place in the last four.

Third seed Lau despatched local qualifier Sujat Barua 11-1, 11-6, 11-6.

Top seed Saurav Ghosal celebrated the return to his Chennai base with an 11-1, 11-9, 11-9 victory over fellow countryman B Balamurugan. The 20-year-old world No42, currently a student at Leeds University in the UK, will now meet eighth seed Naresh Kumar, also from India, who beat Trinidad & Tobago's Colin Ramasra 11-7, 11-8, 9-11, 11-5.

1st round:
[1] Saurav Ghosal (IND) bt [Q] B Balamurugan (IND) 11-1, 11-9, 11-9 (35m)
[8] Naresh Kumar (IND) bt Colin Ramasra (TRI) 11-7, 11-8, 9-11, 11-5 (30m)
[4] Neil Hitchens (ENG) bt [Q] Ramit Tandon (IND) 11-4, 11-3, 11-7 (28m)
[5] Mohamed El Shorbagy (EGY) bt Parthiban Ayappan (IND) 11-8, 11-8, 11-10 (6-4) (33m)
Parth Sharma (IND) bt [6] Yasunori Ishiwata (JPN) 11-5, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7 (36m)
[3] Dick Lau (HKG) bt [Q] Sujat Barua (IND) 11-1, 11-6, 11-6
[7] Gaurav Nandrajog (IND) bt Max Lee (HKG) 8-11, 11-10 (2-0), 8-11, 11-7, 11-4 (53m)
[2] Wai Hang Wong (HKG) bt [Q] Ravi Dixit (IND) 11-3, 7-11, 11-8, 11-10 (2-0) (46m)