Saurav Ghosal failed to build on a bright start and went down fighting to the third-seeded Mohamed El Shorbagy of Egypt in the semifinals of the five-star squash PSA Indian Challenger here at the Calcutta Racket Club on Friday.
The final on Saturday will be an all-Egyptian affair as Tarek Momen produced a mini upset beating the second seeded Cameron Pilley of Australia in the other semifinal.
Dipika Pallikal carried Indian hopes in the WISPA event beating top seeded Sharon Wee of Malaysia. Dipika's doubles partner Joshna Chinappa was not so fortunate; she lost to the second seeded Emma Beddoes of England.
Dipika showed great form as she erased a game's deficit before turning the tables on the top seed.
Saurav dominated the first game producing winners at will against a tentative Shorbagy. The Indian led the second game 7-4 before things turned the other way.
Shorbagy turned to his front game and successfully finished a series of returns to make it 7-10 and levelled the game scores 1-1.
Playing his first semifinal of a five-star event, Saurav started feeling the heat. Shorbagy's command on the front-court game ensured that he won the third game 11-3.
The Indian, who won both times in their previous two meetings, came back in contention in the fourth leading 8-4 at one stage. However, Shorbagy won five consecutive points to make it 9-8.
Saurav salvaged a match point and earned two game points as the game slipped into tie-breaker. But Shorbagy held on and produced successive winners to win the game 14-12 and the match.
The results: Men's (PSA, semifinals): Mohamed El Shorbagy (Egy) bt Saurav Ghosal (Ind) 5-11, 11-9, 11-3, 14-12; Tarek Momen (Egy) bt Cameron Pilley (Aus) 11-13, 11-9, 11-6, 11-6.
Women's (WISPA, semifinals): Dipika Pallikal (Ind) bt Sharon Wee (Mas) 8-11, 12-10, 11-6, 11-9; Emma Beddoes (Eng) bt Joshna Chinappa (Ind) 11-7, 11-4, 11-8.
