Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: India’s World No 47 Veer Chotrani went down to French fourth seed Baptiste Masotti in a five-game thriller in the quarter-finals of the Hamburg Open on April 17.
Chotrani recovered twice to take the contest down to the wire before the French world No 19 clinched the decider for a 12-10, 9-11, 14-12, 9-11, 11-6 victory in 69 minutes.
Earlier, Chotrani pulled off a major upset by defeating the 8th seed and home favourite Kandra in straight games. The Indian dominated the match from start to finish, requiring just 30 minutes to secure an 11-8, 11-7, 11-7 victory and advance to the lats-eight
However, his compatriots, fifth seed Abhay Singh, seventh seed Ramit Tandon bowed out in the second round.
Singh lost to Sam Todd (England) 9-11, 11-7, 4-11, 2-11, Tandon fell to Balazs Farkas (Hungary) 10-12, 11-4, 5-11, 9-11.
Todd, will make their debut in the quarter finals of a bronze-level event, Todd, who’s scooped two copper-level titles already this season, produced some of his best squash to see off Singh – who recently landed the JSW Indian Open crown – to earn himself a quarter-final showdown with the tournament’s No.3 seed Fares Dessouky.
“I know Abhay has been in good form recently as he had some decent results in El Gouna and won the Indian Open. I knew it was going to be a tough match today and I’ve trained with him at Pontefract, which is my club, a few times so I know his game quite well as we’ve hit together a few times,” said Todd.
