Top seed Saurav Ghosal had it easy against qualifier Karim El Hammamy of Egypt in the first round of the $35000 Vedanta Indian Open squash tournament at the National Sports Club of India on Thursday.
The 31-year-old Ghosal, who climbed to a career-best 14th in the PSA rankings last week, took just 44 minutes to beat Hammamy 11-3, 11-4, 11-6. Ghosal will run into another Egyptian, Karim Ali Fathi, in the quarterfinals. The latter accounted for Eain Yow Ng.
India’s unseeded Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu knocked out the No. 8 seed, England’s Nathan Lake, in a first-round match while Mahesh Mangaonkar shocked sixth-seeded Frenchman Lucas Serme 11-6, 12-10,11-8.
The results (first round): Saurav Ghosal bt Karim El Hammamy (Egy) 11-3, 11-4, 11-6; Karim Ali Fathi (Egy) bt Eain Yow Ng (Mas) 11-5, 13-11, 11-9; Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu bt Nathan Lake (Eng) 11-7, 12-10, 5-11, 11-8; Greg Lobban (Sco) bt Addeen Idrakie (Mas) 13-11, 11-6, 11-9; Nicolas Mueller (Sui) bt Ammar Altamimi (Kuw) 11-9, 7-11, 11-4, 11-7; Omar Abdel Meguid (Egy) bt Rex Hedrick (Aus) 11-9, 13-11, 10-12, 11-7; Mahesh Mangaonkar bt Lucas Serme 11-6, 12-10, 11-8; Chris Simpson (Eng) bt Mazen Gamal (Egy) 8-11, 11-9, 11-9, 9-11, 11-3.
