Saurav Ghosal secures hard-fought world tour event title

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 PSA Challenger.

It was a hard-fought win for Ghsal against the second seeded Zahed Salem of Egypt (File photo).

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.