New Delhi: India's Saurav Ghosal and Ramit Tandon came up with a wonderful show to win the battle of the Asians against Hong Kong and enter the quarter-finals of the WSF Men's World Teams Squash Championship in Mulhouse, France.
Ghosal started as a strong favourite against World No.34 Max Lee and duly delivered the goods, putting India 1-0 ahead with a comfortable 3-1 win in just over an hour. In the next game, Tandon showed his composure to ride out of the storm and win the crucial tie against Yip Tsz Fung 3-0 in 38 minutes.
In just under 100 minutes, India had booked a berth in the quarterfinals with still a match to go. However, in the dead rubber, Harinder Pal Sandhu lost to Leo Au 1-2. Eighth seed India will play against favourites Egypt in the quarters. A win could take India closer to their bid of becoming the first nation since 1987 to win the title three times in a row.
In the match against Lee, Ghosal started strongly and his usual busy game reaped good rewards as he won the first game. Quarterfinalist at Asian Championship in Pakistan and the Hong Kong International in May, Lee came back strongly, matching Ghosal stroke for stroke and dominating the front court. He opened a 7-2 lead in the second game.
Ghosal paid the price of being too aggressive and Lee took full advantage to open up the front of the court. The Indian, however, was quick to realise his mistake and he made amends. Ghosal held himself back a little allowing a bit more time to stretch his opponent.
Ghosal won seven points on a trot, including cashing in on three unforced errors from Lee, to take a 9-7 lead and eventually close out the game 11/8.
The third game was an equally interesting tussle with little to choose between the two. At one stage the scores were tied at 7-7. Ghosal inexplicably froze, making uncharacteristic errors and missing a boast to hand the game to his opponent. But the lapse proved momentary and Ghosal regrouped quickly to get back into his rhythm and controlled the pace in the fourth game to win 11-6.
Tandon was next on court against Fung. Fung has been a regular on the junior circuit and has only graduated to the senior tour this year. Tandon did not perform to the standard he set against Henrik Mustonen earlier in this tournament, but he never really needed to get out of second gear against the inexperienced youngster from Hong Kong.
Tandon might have got unnerved a bit by the extra bounce, which allowed his opponent to pick up his shots a lot easier, but he Tandon kept his cool to win 11-9 11-5 11-9. "We were very confident going into this match," said Indian national coach Cyrus Poncha.
"Being our Asian counterparts, we know their standards well. Our first goal was to get into the top eight. We've got a tough one in Egypt tomorrow," he conceded. His Egyptian counterpart, Mohamed Medhat Morsi said, "The boys are ready for the battle. We have tough opponents in the next round. India are one of the countries coming up in squash."
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