India’s ace squash players Joshna Chinappaand Saurav Ghosaladvanced to the round-of-16after easy wins in their respective women's and men singles matches at the CommonwealthGames here on Saturday.

Both Chinappa and Ghosal, who are searching for the elusive CWG gold medal in singles, registered identical3-0 victories in the round of 32 matches.

Living up to her billing, Chinappa outclassed Meagan Best of Barbados. The 18-time national champion won 11-8,11-9, 12-10.

She won the opening two sets without much fuss, but Best came back hard in the third one. However, Chinappaheld her nerves to emerge victorious.

The 35-year-old Ghosalsteamrolled Shamil Wakeel of Sri Lanka 11-4, 11-4, 11-6. Ghosalwas in complete control from the beginning and the Sri Lankan was simply no match for the Indian.

Meanwhile, Sunayna SaraKuruvilla’s campaign ended after she lost to Malaysia’sAifa Azman 7-11, 7-11, 7-11.

India’s Ramit Tandonwithdrew from the men’s singles round-of-32 match due to an injury. His Jamaican opponent Christopher Binnie thus got a walk-over and sailed into the next round.

Impressive show

The men and women table tennis players continued their impressive show recording their second straight wins.

First up, the women's steam, led by Manika Batra, outclassedGuyana 3-0 in a Group II match while the men’s side also thrashed Northern Irelandby an identical margin in a Group III game.

The women’s team, defending the title it had won at Gold Coast four years ago, had enjoyed a winning start to its campaign on Friday after crushing South Africa and Fiji by identical 3-0 margins.

On the second competition day, the first to turn up was the pair ofSreejaAkulaand Reeth Tennison and they steamrolled Natalie Cummings and Chelsea Edghill11-5, 11-7, 11-7 to put India 1-0 ahead.

Then, Batra, who became the first Indian table tennis player to win a gold in the women’s singles in the last edition, decimated ThuraiaThomas 11-1, 11-3, 11-3. In another woman's singles match, Reeth fought hard to register an 11-7 14-12 13-11 win against Chelsea Edghill. Reeth’s win ensured that India won the tie convincingly.

In the men’s team event, Sharath Kamal paired up with Harmeet Desai to beat JamesSkelton and Owen Cathcart11-3, 9-11, 11-6, 11-1 to hand a 1-0 lead. Sanil Shetty then beatPaul McCrerry 11-5, 15-13, 11-6 to extend India’s lead.

But Harmeet Desai had to dig deep before prevailing overCatchcart 5-11, 11-9, 12-14, 11-3,11-6 in a hard-fought second singles match.

Nataraj in final

Indian swimmer Srihari Natarajhas qualified for the final of men’s 100m backstroke after clocking 54:55 seconds in the semi-final event at the ongoing Commonwealth Games.

The 21-year-old finished fourth in his heat and seventh overall to secure a berth in the medal event that will take place on Sunday.

The Bangalore lad will now set his sights on becoming only the second Indian swimmer to bag a medal in the Commonwealth Games since Prasanta Karmakar’shistoric bronze in the para-swimming event at the Delhi CWG in 2010.

At the Tokyo Olympics last year, Nataraj had become the first Indian to swim in the classification A heat.

Elusive gold

In search of an elusive gold in CWG, the Indian men’s hockey team will look to start its campaign on a rousing note against lowly Ghana in its Pool B match on Sunday.

The phenomenal success at the Tokyo Olympics, where India clinched a historic bronze after 41 years, has ignited hopes from the ManpreetSingh-led side to stop the Australian juggernaut. The Australians are the most successful team in Games history.