Squash Inspire – Women’s Open: Rising Stars Navani & Baltayan into Round Two

Rising American star Riya Navani and 16-year-old French prospect Lauren Baltayan were among the winners on day one at the Squash Inspire – Women’s Open 2024 presented by Expression Networks LLC & Play Squash Academy. 

17-year-old Navani – who has committed to Stanford University – burst onto the scene last year by beating Nour Aboulmakarim as a wild card at the South Western Open Presented by Cotidié. 

She played just one Challenger Tour event after that, reaching the quarter-finals of the International Tournament Madeira Island, but kicked off 2024 with a hard-fought win over Barbados’ Margot Prow here. 

Prow is outside the world’s top 250 after playing just one Challenger Tour event in 2023, but is a former World No.100, and pushed Navani all the way in a five-game thriller, which the American eventually won 3-2 in 60 minutes. 

Navani’s reward for her win is a second-round clash with No.4 seed Akanksha Salunkhe, with the winner of that match set to play either Danielle Ray or Diana Garcia. 

Ray set up that meeting with No.6 seed Garcia by beating Malta’s Colette Sultana 11-3, 11-5, 13-11 in less than 20 minutes. 

Elsewhere, French sensation Lauren Baltayan produced a ruthless display to see off Sri Lankan wild card Nadindhi Udangawe, dropping only nine points across the entire match. 

Baltayan won 11-2, 11-4, 11-3 in just 20 minutes, and will now play seventh seed Yasshmita Jadish Kumar for a place in the quarter-finals. 

You can stay up to date with all the results on the PSA Challenger Tour here.