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Matches between countrymen can be more mental than physical, but today it was both between Saurav Ghosal (IND) and Kush Kumar (IND). Ghosal dominated at the start, closing out a quick first game from the middle, 11-2. But Kumar came back with a plan in the second, mixing up shots to send Ghosal scrambling. Kumar settled into a better accuracy that forced several key errors from Ghosal, who otherwise played a tight game throughout.
But the extra time spent chasing extra points in the second cost Kumar in the third. Kumar seemed to tire, and many of Ghosal's shots came from his opponent's unforced errors, sending the match his way 11-2, 15-3, 11-4 in 39 minutes.
"I'm happy to have won," Ghosal said. "I played Kush two months back in Nationals and it was a really hard 3-1 win. I think I played better today. It's good to start the tournament with a 3-0 win. The second game was tight. Full credit to Kush, he fought really well and had some good counterattacks. All in all a good day's work."
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