Squash ace Sandeep Ramachandran upsets the third seed at the South Australian Open

Sandeep Ramachandran

19-year-old Indian squash ace Sandeep Ramachandran continues to impress. After having played a few tournaments on the PSA circuit, the quick learner is brimming with confidence. And that showed on Wednesday as he dismissed the third seed Thomas Calvert with consummate ease in the first round of the South Australian Open.

Ramachandran is a qualifier at this tournament and there is a gulf of 62 ranking places between the 273rd ranked Indian and the 211th ranked Australian. But when they took the court, it was Sandeep who looked the more poised and mature of the two as he posted a 5-11, 11-6, 11-2, 11-6 win over Calvert.

The match lasted 42 minutes.

The Indian will next meet the seventh seed Mike Corren of Australia for a place in the semi-finals.

The Bahrain-born Ramachandran has been on a roll lately and had reached his maiden PSA semi-final only last week at the Tasmanian Open. En route to entering the last-four, he toppled the second seed Rhys Dowling in the quarter-finals.