Pune: Rudra Singh, a student of CP Goenka International School, Pune has qualified for the Asian Junior (Under-17) Squash Championship, to be held in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad from June 25th-29th this year.
Rudra was playing her first tournament after appearing for her 10th board exams held in March. Her qualification in girls U-17 category came by virtue of Rudra making it to the final of Asian Junior Selection Trials 2024 being held in Chennai.
For this tournament Rudra travelled to Chennai with her elder sister Yoshna, who is pursuing her studies from the University of Pennsylvania in the United States. Yoshna, herself is a two-time National champion in the girls U-17 category. Yoshna, who plays for her University in the United States had returned home for holiday as her university had vacations. She travelled with Rudra to guide her younger sister in the selection trials being conducted by the Squash and Racket Federation of India (SRFI).
The SRFI had mandated that top 3 finishers at the selection trials would be picked for the Islamabad event. Rudra stormed into the final beating SeharNayar.having qualified for the final of the selection trials Rudra hss ensured that she would at least finish in top 2. In the final on B Monday, May 6 , Rudra will meet Unnati Tripathi, who made it to the summit clash beating Navya Sundararajan.
The Pune girl had also qualified for the Asian Junior last year in the girls U-15 category held in Hangzhou, China. Rudra , however, could not travel to China as she suffered leg injury ahead of the tournament and had to withdraw from the Hangzhou event.
Results:
Semifinal: Rudra Singh bt Sehar Nayar 11-6, 11-7, 3-11, 11-3.
Unnati Tripathi bt Navya Sundararajan 11-7, 11-4 ,4-11, 11-6.
