Squash at CWG 2022 : Saurav Ghosal through to semis, to face Paul Coll

Squash at CWG 2022 : Saurav Ghosal through to semis, to face Paul Coll

India’s Saurav Ghosal made use of all his experience to register a composed 3-1 win over World No. 34 Greg Lobban in the Men’s Singles quarterfinals at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

35-year old Ghosal eased to an 11-5 win over the Scot in the first set but Lobban fought back to win the second 11-8. The hard fought third set was interrupted by several video referrals before Ghosal won 11-7. Ghosal got into an early lead in the fourth set and maintained the pressure on the Scot to eventually win 11-3.

Ghosal, a former World No.10, will next take on reigning British Open champion Paul Coll of New Zealand in the semifinals. World No.2 Coll, a gold medal favourite in Birmingham, eased passed England’s Adrian Waller in the quarters with a score of 12-10, 11-4, 11-7.

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This is the second time that current World No. 15 Ghosal has made it to the CWG Men’s Singles semifinals; he made it to the last four eight years ago at Glasgow 2014 where he lost to former World No.1 James Willstrop in the semis and then to Peter Barker in the bronze medal match. In the 2018 edition singles, Ghosal had suffered a shock Round of 32 loss.

Interestingly Ghosal had beaten Coll in the 2014 CWGs but the New Zealander has massively improved in stature since then. Coll has a 3-0 Head-to-Head advantage over Ghosal.

Ghosal will be looking to win his first CWG singles medal in what could be his final appearance at the quadrennial event; he already has a Mixed Doubles silver from 2018.

Joshna Chinappa crashes out in quarters

India No. 1 Joshna Chinappa lost her quarterfinal match 0-3 to Canada’s Hollie Naughton. A close contest was expected between current World No. 17 Joshna and World No. 20 Naughton but the Canadian managed to win in straight sets.

Joshna got into an early lead in the first set but soon surrendered the advantage to Naughton who eventually won 11-9. Naughton outclassed Joshna with an 11-5 win in the second sets. Joshna tried to fight back in the third set but managed to lose four game points to eventually lose 13-15.

Joshna had also lost in the quarters in 2018. She will be in action in the Mixed and Women’s Doubles events in Birmingham.