The Indian men's squash team made a flying start to its Asian Games campaign, cruising past China 3-0 in Pool A while the women's side recovered from an early setback to prevail 2-1 in their Pool C match against China in Nagoya on Monday.
India's men were barely troubled as Suraj Chand, Veer Chotrani and Velavan Senthilkumar all registered comfortable wins to seal the tie in straight matches.
Chand set the tone by beating Du Shaoqian 11-4 11-3 12-10 in 30 minutes. Having raced through the opening two games, Chand was stretched in the third as Du earned a game point, but the Indian held his nerve to close it out 12-10.
Chotrani then extended India's lead with an emphatic 11-5 11-5 11-3 win over U Haizhen in under 20 minutes. Senthilkumar completed the rout, dispatching Zhou Penglin 11-3 11-2 11-4.
The women's team, meanwhile, had to dig deep after Sameena Riaz squandered a two-game advantage against Ziuan Yin.
Riaz, daughter of former India Asian Games hockey gold medallist and Olympian Mohammed Riaz, won the first two games but could not close out the match, going down 11-8 11-6 9-11 9-11 12-14 in a gruelling 41-minute contest.
Tanvi Khanna then restored parity for India with a dominant 11-3 11-5 11-5 win over Zhang Yuning in just 17 minutes.
Veteran Joshna Chinappa completed the comeback, using her experience to overcome Liu Ziyi 12-10 11-4 11-6 in 22 minutes and seal the 2-1 victory for India.
