The Hindu : Sport / Squash : Saurav to lead Indian challenge

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Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008
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Sport - Squash

Saurav to lead Indian challenge

Amitabha Das Sharma

KOLKATA: National champion Saurav Ghoshal will be leading the Indian challenge in the Kolkata International Squash, which will be played here at the 215-year-old Calcutta Racket Club from Tuesday.

The Professional Squash Association (PSA) three-star event has world No. 16 Mohammad Azlan Iskandar of Malaysia as the top seed.

The four-day event has seven players from the top-50 of the world rankings. The main draw will be a draw of 16 with the final scheduled on Friday.

Iskander’s compatriot Ong Beng Hee — currently ranked 18 in the world — is seeded second while Omar Mosaad of Egypt (ranked 27) and Pakistan’s Aamir Atlas Khan (31) and Mansoor Zaman (35) come next in the order.

The Indian hopes rest on 21-year-old Ghosal, who has the fifth best ranking in the tournament (at 49) after Omar Abdel Aziz of Egypt (41).

Ritwik Bhattacharya and Siddharth Suchde are also in the main draw.

Ritwik is the first Indian to make a mark internationally with seven PSA titles.

Bhattacharya, currently ranked 63 in the world, has a big test at the very start running into 18-year-old Atlas Khan in the first round.

Khan beat both Beng Hee and Iskander on the way to win the CAS International in Islamabad, a 2 and a half star event, last year.

Suchede, who has received a wildcard after winning a PSA super satellite event in Saint Louis (USA) last month, makes the Indian participation stronger.

Gaurav Nandrajog, also from India, made it into the main draw after he beat Jonas Laursen (Den) in the qualifiers on Monday evening.

The results (qualifying finals): Mohd. El Shorbagy (Egy) bt Naresh Kumar (Ind) 11-10(2-0), 11-2, 11-9; Jethro Binns (Wales) bt Mohamed Elkeiy (Egy) 11-5, 11-5, 11-7; Gaurav Nandrajog (Ind) bt Jonas Laursen (Den) 11-5, 11-3, 11-7; Rob Sutherland (Wal) bt Lukas Jelinek (Cze) 11-7, 11-9, 11-2.

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