Bengaluru/Doha, October 23: Saurav Ghosal who lost in the Channel VAS Championships quarterfinal to Egypt's Karim Abdel Gawad last week has turned his attention to the Professional Squash Association (PSA) World Tour Qatar Classic which begins on Saturday (October 27).
The Indian ace was in good form in the PSA World Tour Gold tournament held in Weybridge last before going down to world No.10 Gawad 7-11, 3-11, 8-11 in a 39-minute encounter.
A fine second round performance against Frenchman Mathieu Castagnet had sent Kolkata-based Ghosal into the last eight, but he was outclassed by former world champion Gawad, who hit a vast array of winners.
In the Qatar Classic, which is a PSA World Tour Platinum tournament, Ghosal begins his campaign on Monday (October 29) against a qualifier.
The $177,750 prize-money tournament, which will take place at Doha's Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, will conclude on November 2.
Egypt's world No.1 Mohamed El Shorbagy and former world No.3 Omar Mosaad headline a top-class draw as he will be joined by some big names in men's squash, including Germany's world No.19 Raphael Kandra, England's former world No.9 Daryl Selby and Australia's world No.23 Cameron Pilley.
The entry list for the QSF No.1 has been released - and 'The Hammer of Thor' @mosaadsquash will be the No.1 seed! 🔨⚡️
— PSA World Tour (@PSAWorldTour) October 22, 2018
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Home interest comes in the form of Qatar's No.1 Abdulla Mohd Al Tamimi - who clinched his biggest ever PSA title at the Malaysian Open earlier this year - and the world No.24 will be looking to perform strongly in front of his home crowd.
Meanwhile, the two wildcard spots are taken up by world No.284 Hamad Al Amri and world No.414 Rashid Al-Harib - who are both rising talents in Qatari squash.
As a PSA World Tour Platinum tournament, the winner of the event will automatically qualify for a coveted berth at the season-ending PSA World Tour Finals, which includes both a men's and women's tournament and features the reigning PSA World Champions together with the season's Platinum event winners and players that qualify by placing high enough on the PSA Road to Dubai Leaderboard.
(With PSA inputs).