The Hindu : Sport / Squash : Ghosal in last four

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 23, 2004

Sport

Sport - Squash

Ghosal in last four

By S.R. Suryanarayan

CHENNAI, JULY 22. India's junior champion Saurav Ghosal emerged a facile winner over Egyptian Amr Mansi to grab a semifinal slot in the Chennai-ICL Open, a super-Satellite PSA squash event at the TNSRA court on Thursday.

In terms of PSA ranking, the Egyptian is above the Indian but that did not undo the local lad who as usual played with aplomb, hitting and driving with gusto and effecting the drops with efficiency. Indeed Mansi was no spectator, but equally shrewd and gritty but where Ghosal outscored him was in his new found ability to vary his strokes, sometimes coming up with boasts for clear winners.

Agility is Ghosal's key asset and with clever placements, he had Mansi stretching and swaying a long way. The way he pushed Mansi on the wrong foot with cleverly masked drives down the line, the small gathering was quick to cheer the Indian. More than anything it was 61 minutes of pure action, clean and intense with no quarter asked and none given. If it was Ghosal who took an early lead then Mansi showed his ability to fight back and close the leeway.

Points went neck and neck before Ghosal drew away. The backhand steeping drops and the angled shots to the corner bore the signs of an emerging star. And when Ghosal let out that shriek of joy clinching the last point it was an understandable show of contentment for he had beaten a higher seeded player, Mansi was seeded four to his six.

Interestingly he will play the top seed Jean-Michel Arcucci of France next. The Frenchman once again was unshakable. Arcucci knows to conserve his energy even as he drains his opponent's. It was Egyptian Sherif Kamel's turn to be at the receiving end. The deft strokes on either side of the court and his control showed the hallmark of a player totally assured. May be the few `let' and `stroke' calls upset him but nothing unsettled him. Deep in concentration he allowed Kamel to stretch the rallies, at times they seemed never ending, but more often ensured they ended in his favour. That explained why the contest went 65 minutes for the scores would hardly suggest that.

In another match, national champion Ritwik Bhattacharya closed all avenues for a fighting Siddarth Suchde to emerge a comfortable winner after an uncertain start.

The results: Quarterfinals: Jean-Michel Arcucci (Fra) bt Sherif Kamel (Egy) 15-7, 15-8, 15-5; Saurav Ghosal (Ind) bt Amr Mansi (Egy) 15-12, 15-13, 15-10; Ritwik Bhattacharya (Ind) bt Siddarth Suchde (Ind) 17-15, 15-5, 15-9.

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