Rising squash ace Sandeep Ramachandran goes down fighting in semi-finals of Tasmanian Open

Playing two PSA matches on the same day took a toll on the relatively inexperienced 19-year-old rising squash ace Sandeep Ramachandran. The young Indian bowed out of the $5,000 Tasmanian Open in Devonport, Australia on Saturday in the semi-finals but not before asserting himself.

In the morning, the qualifier put up a fabulous show of guts and gumption to eke out a brilliant 9-11, 11-5, 11-4, 7-11, 11-8 win over the second seed Rhys Dowling of Australia to reach the semi-finals. The marathon lasted 56 minutes.

At 21, the 140th ranked Dowling surely had more experience than Ramachandran, who is ranked just 273rd. But the fledgeling talent did not let the huge gulf in the rankings bother him as he went on to pull off the upset and reach the maiden PSA semi-final of his career.

That massive effort, unfortunately, took a lot out of him. In the evening, when he squared off against the third seed Ko Youngjo of Korea, he did give the 186th ranked player a run for his money. But it was still not enough as Sandeep went down 6-11, 7-11, 12-10, 10-12 in 43 minutes.

The Dubai-based Indian is one of the biggest rising talents and was the runner-up in the Sub-junior Nationals last year in the U-19 category. He has been playing regularly on the PSA Tour since January and broke into the top 300 this June for the first time in his career.