Mumbai, Nov 9:
National champion and tournament third seed Saurav Ghosal stormed into the final of the USD 50,000 CCI International JSW Indian Squash Circuit by outclassing his second-seeded Egyptian rival Omar Mossad 3-1 in the semi finals here today.
Ghosal, ranked 21st in the world, dropped the first game against his Egyptian opponent, ranked 20th on the PSA Tour, 5-11 before hitting the high note to take the next three games 11-4, 11-8 11-7 to advance to tomorrow’s final.
In the first semi final, Swiss fifth seed Nicolas Mueller brought the superb run of India’s Ramit Tandon to a halt, by outclassing the 25-year-old wild card – conqueror top seed Borja Golan of Spain yesterday – in three straight games.
Mueller, ranked 27th in the world, had total control of the proceedings as he carved out a 11-6 11-8 11-7 victory over Tandon, currently ranked a lowly 201 after surging to a career-high of 118 three years ago, in 32 minutes to enter the summit clash.
Ghosal took time to hit the groove against his much taller opponent from Egypt, a semi finalist at last month’s US Open.
The 31-year-old India number one was beaten fair and square in the first game but then dictated the pace of the game thereon in the match that lasted 64 minutes.
Ghosal took a small lead of 6-4 in the second that he gradually increased by stepping up the pace and sharpening the angles of his shots to prise out errors from his opponent before clinching the last point with a back-hand into the nick.(PTI)