DOHA (Qatar): Saurav Ghosal advanced into the second round of PSA World Championships after defeating fellow Indian Mahesh Mangaonkar in a tough three-game battle at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex here on Friday night.
Two other Indians in the fray lost leaving Ghosal to carry forward the challenge at the championship.
England’s Declan James avoided an upset against India’s world No.58 Vikram Malhotra while Ramit Tandon lost to Borja Golan 11-9, 11-6, 11-3.
World No.11 Ghosal took the first two games by the same scoreline, winning them both 11-7, but the third was much tougher as both men had plenty of opportunities to win the deciding game.
“I don’t think I did anything wrong to lose points when I had match ball, or for him to go up game ball. He just played some very good stuff, so all credit to him,” Ghosal told Khelupdates.com.
Ghosal had several match balls saved, whilst also having to save several game balls, but in the end, he got the job done in the third, winning it 18-16 to round out the match in just under an hour.
“I just had to keep doing what I am capable of and to produce the quality I could. In the end, it was touch and go, and he could have easily won that tie-break,” he added.
Qatar’s Al Tamimi upsets Marche
Qataris Abdulla Mohammed Al Tamimi and Syed Azlan Amjad also moved into the second round for the first time in history.
The 24-year-old Tamimi, ranked world No.47, took 50 minutes to upset world No.14 Gregoire Marche, winning 11-6, 11-9, 7-11, 11-9 to reach the last 32 stage.
“I’m really relieved, I’ve played a lot of matches here, I’ve had a lot of big battles. I had my chances, but I couldn’t make it. I couldn’t play that well for a couple of years, and had to wait for the World Championships in 2019 to finally have my first major win here in Qatar,” said Al Tamimi.
Also making it to the second round was Qatar’s wildcard Syed Azlan Amjad while the third Qatari Hamad Al Amri crashed out.
New Zealand’s Paul Coll secured his place in the last 32 after easing past wildcard Hamad Al Hamri by 11-4, 11-4, 11-3 in just 20 minutes.
