Commonwealth Games 2022: Saurav Ghosal loses in squash semifinals, to take on Willstrop in bronze-medal tie

Bengaluru, August 2: India's leading squash player Saurav Ghosal's gold medal hopes ended as he went down to New Zealand's Paul Coll 9-11, 4-11, 1-11 in the men's singles semifinals at the Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2022 in Birmingham.

Ghosal will now play in the bronze-medal play-off match on Wednesday (August 3) against England's dethroned defending champion James Willstrop, who was stunned 11-5, 11-5, 11-9 by Joel Makin of Wales in the other last-four encounter.

The match will be held at 9.30pm IST.

The Professional Squash Association (PSA) world No.15 had defeated Scotland's Greg Lobbon 11-5, 8-11, 11-7, 11-3 to earn a place in the last-four.

Commonwealth Games 2022, Squash: India Squad, Schedule, Telecast & Live Streaming Information

But PSA world No.2 Coll proved too good for Ghosal in the semifinals.

Coll has had the bit between his teeth in Birmingham, with the Kiwi -- who was ranked world No.1 between March and May this year -- recording identical 3-0 wins over Niall Engerer of Malta and Adrian Waller of England, as well as coming from behind to beat Wales' Emyr Evans in the round-of-16.

Ghosal, who was aiming to become the first Indian to reach a CWG squash final, too, had looked sharp after seeming to have exorcised the demons of a shock second-round exit at CWG 2018 held in Gold Coast, Australia.

At Birimngham 2022, the 35-year-old began his campaign with straight-game victories over Sri Lanka's Shamil Wakeel and Canada's David Baillargeon, before besting Scotland's Greg Lobban 3-1.

But on Tuesday (August 2) evening at the University of Birmingham Hockey and Squash Centre, Ghosal proved no match for Coll.

Ghosal gave a good account of himself in the first game, as he fell to a narrow 0-11 defeat after going 6-10 down.

After this, though, Coll was at his brilliant best and he reached his second successive final with comfortable 11-4 and 11-1 wins.

"There's no feeling to describe it. I've really found my groove the past two matches. I've trained for four years to bring a medal back to New Zealand and obviously I really want it to be gold," said Coll, who will take on giant-killer Makin in the finals.

Earlier, India's leading women's squash player -- Joshna Chinappa -- had lost to Canada's Hollie Naughton in the quarterfinals.

The 18-time national champion could not produce her best, losing 9-11, 5-11, 13-15 to the 27-year-old Haughton.

Birmingham 2022: Anahat Singh, India's youngest athlete at Commonwealth Games loses battle, but wins hearts

The CWG 2022 also saw India unearthing a new talent in Anahat Singh.

Though the teenage prodigy lost in the round-of-32, the 14-year-old, who was the youngest among Indian competitors at Birmingham 2022, won plenty of hearts with her gritty performance in her first major tournament.