India’s no. 1 squash player Saurav Ghosal, seeded no. 4 at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, said his medal chances are brighter, though competition in the draw remains as tough as before.
“At no. 4, you are not playing the top three till the semifinals. That is a good start,” said the world no. 16 on the PSA list. “Having said that, there are a couple of good players seeded fifth to eighth, and the others outside the top eight who are good. It means you have to play at least three, if not four good matches, to win a medal.”
The Commonwealth Games in Scotland will be followed by the 17th Asian Games in Incheon (South Korea), but Ghosal feels the Commonwealth event will be tougher.
“Asia has become a lot stronger, with four or five players capable of causing an upset. In the Commonwealth Games, you have world-class competition. Nick Matthew (world champion), former world no. 1 James Willstrop and Peter Barker (world no. 8) will be there, making it harder to win the gold.”
Looking at the competition from Pakistan, Malaysia, Kuwait and Hong Kong at the Asian Games, he feels India can win medals from the doubles events in both the men’s and women’s sections.
Ghosal stressed that the Indians moving to Europe early as a career move have benefited, compared to those doing the same after spending time finding their feet in the junior ranks. “It is about how you look at it. I went to England at 18 and had to unlearn a lot of things I had been doing for the last 10 years of my career.
“Putting that into perspective, I was doing at 18 what James (Willstrop) had done at five years, he had a 13-year head-start on me!”
