Washington, Jan 29: Reigning men’s national champion Velavan Senthilkumar and Veer Chotrani advanced in the Squash on Fire Open in Washington with hard-fought first round wins in the PSA Bronze-level event. 46 Senthilkumar rallied to beat England’s Tom Walsh 12-14, 11-8, 11-8, 11-6 and will next meet Mexican world No. 49 Chotrani edged out Hungary’s Balazs Farkas 6-11, 9-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-3, and will take on French world No. 1, sitting 8-2 down in game four, having lost the first two games before winning the third. That was followed by another five-game tussle between Menna Hamed and Wai Yhann Au Yeong in the match immediately afterwards.