India’s squash ace Saurav Ghosal picked up his second PSA world tour event title this year after beating second seeded Zahed Salem of Egypt in the final of the Kolkata International $30,000 PSA Challenger, here on Sunday. Playing in front of a partisan home crowd at the Calcutta Racket Club, the world No. 11 Ghosal made a brilliant start but lapsed into occasional errors to be stretched by the World No. 27 Salem till the decider.
Ghosal, who beat former World No. 1 Marwan El Shorbagy to triumph in a similar World Tour event here in 2015, summoned up his winning form once again to get the better of Salem in a gruelling match lasting 86 minutes.
The 32-year-old Indian won the first game 11-5 showing nice control and aggression against the 26-year-old Egyptian but failed to maintain the momentum in the second where the latter produced a number of spectacular winners to make it 1-1 (8-11). Ghosal came back strongly in the third to win it 11-8 (2-1) but squandered two championship points while leading the fourth 10-8, from which position Salem reclaimed the game (11-13) to make it 2-2.
Ghosal was back at his best in the decider which he won 11-5 to secure his second PSA title after the Vedanta Indian Squash Open in Mumbai in February.
The result: Final - Sourav Ghosal (Ind) bt Zahed Salem (Egy) 11-5, 8-11, 11-8, 11-13, 11-5.
Comments
SHARE