India booked their place in the pre-quarter-final round with a commanding 3-0 win over Finland in their second Pool H match of the WSF men's World Team squash championship.
After a tight escape against Argentina, the Indian team made the bold choice of bringing in Ramit Tandon in place of Harinder Pal Sandhu. The gamble paid off as Tandon tamed the dangerous Henrik Mustonen 11-4, 11-6, 11-13, 11-4, and set India on course for a 3-0 win that took them to the top of the Pool H on Monday.
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Mahesh Mangaonkar in action
The 22-year-old Mustonen has recently achieved his career best 36th in world rankings, a whopping 196 places higher than Tandon, and was an overwhelming favourite going into the match.
But Tandon showed no fear and went for the jugular, volleying brilliantly to give Mustonen the run around. The young Indian wrapped up the first game as a shell-shocked Mustonen tried to figure out what hit him.
There was no letting up from Tandon as he continued his attacking style, going for his volleys and backhand drops to torment the Finnish No 2 who is coming off a good run on the PSA Tour.
Sunday’s hero Mahesh Mangaonkar was next on court and proved too powerful for Matias Tuomi as the Indian stamped his authority early on and never let go, winning 11-4, 11-7, 11-7, to seal the win and a last 16 spot for the Indians leaving Saurav Ghosal to play out a dead rubber.
With the tie won, Ghosal and Olli Tuominen played out a high-quality battle that was good value for the money with the Indian winning 3-1.
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