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PSA Squash World Championships: Saurav Ghosal bows out in pre-quarterfinals

At the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Qatar's capital city, top seed El Shorbagy beat Ghosal 11-6, 11-8, 14-12 in a 49-minute encounter.

Saurav Ghosal

Bengaluru/Doha, November 13: India's campaign in the Professional Squash Association (PSA) World Championship ended after the loss of Saurav Ghosal to Egypt's world No.2 Mohamed El Shorbagy in the pre-quarterfinals.

At the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Qatar's capital city, top seed El Shorbagy beat Ghosal 11-6, 11-8, 14-12 in a 49-minute encounter.

The pair had faced off eight times on the PSA World Tour prior to this clash, with the Egyptian holding a 6-2 advantage, having won the six most recent meetings between them.

Close game

Close game

The first game was close all the way through to 6-6, but errors from the PSA world No.11 allowed El Shorbagy to take a lead that he would not relinquish.

The second game was much the same, with Ghosal hitting both winners and errors. ‘The Beast' capitalised once more to double his advantage in the match.

Tricky tie

Tricky tie

The third was trickier for the Egyptian, who had to save two game balls to fight back after being 8-10 down.

He then needed two match balls of his own, with Ghosal saving the first two, but El Shorbagy was able to get over the line in the end, booking his place in the quarterfinals, where he will meet his younger brother Marwan for the third time in four events this year.

Great friends

Great friends

"We both go way back and we're great friends. To beat him 3-0 is a huge boost for my confidence because it 's never easy to beat him in three. Really happy to come back in that third game when I was 8-10 down. That's something I'm really proud of," El Shorbagy admitted.

"At that time, you just take it point-by-point. I actually took a lot of risks at that point in the game and I started to go for it. Sometimes it pays off and luckily it did. I was up 6-4 and I should've capitalised, but he just showed the great player he's and the experience he has by coming back into the game and the way he did so was unbelievable," the Egyptian added.

Unique situation

Unique situation

About the quarterfinal tie against brother Marwan, El Shorbagy had his own take.

"This is my fourth tournament this season and this will be my third meeting with Marwan. It's normal because we both play in the later stages of the tournament. It's a unique situation for our sport, but we both give something different to the sport and I'm glad to be a part of it."

(With PSA World Tour Media inputs)

Story first published: Wednesday, November 13, 2019, 11:21 [IST]
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