Indian squash ace Saurav Ghosal produced a fantastic show of resilience for a come-from-behind victory over the fourth seed and World No. 5 Miguel Rodriguez en route to the quarter-finals of the $100,000 China Open in Shanghai on Thursday. The World No. 21 was two games to one down when he steered his way back into the match for an 11-9, 8-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-5 win in 90 minutes.
This is his second consecutive win over Rodriguez after having ousted the Colombian in a similar five-game thriller at the Colombia Open semi-finals last year.
This is the 11-time national champion’s first win on the PSA Tour since making a comeback from an ankle injury in July. The injury that he sustained at the British Open kept him out of action for nearly two months.
Last week he played at the season’s first World Series event in Hong Kong where he succumbed to an opening round defeat to eventual champion Ramy Ashour.
The 30-year-old was understandably ecstatic after his upset win over Rodriguez at the China Open and later on tweeted:
Ghosal, though, has a tough task up next. He faces the sixth seed Karim Abdel Gawad who made it to the final of the Hong Kong Open last week where he lost to Ashour.
Chinappa also wins
Ghosal was not the only Indian winning on Thursday. Former 14-time women’s national champion Joshna Chinappa too staged an impressive comeback to beat the 22nd ranked qualifier Heba El Torky of Egypt, 8-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-7.
Also read: PSA rankings: Joshna Chinappa back in top 10
The fifth seed will next take on the top seed and World No. 2 Laura Massaro for a place in the semi-finals. It was a grand day for the 29-year-old as she climbed back into the top 10 in the latest PSA rankings released on Thursday.
Pallikal crashes out
However, the third Indian playing in this tournament – Dipika Pallikal – did not enjoy the same fortunes. The World No. 19 crashed out 5-11, 5-11, 6-11 to the fourth-ranked Egyptian Nouran Gohar, who is the reigning Hong Kong Open champion.
Pallikal was a qualifier at this tournament and notched up wins over Peng Zhenni and Olivia Blatchford.
