India's highest ranking professional Saurav Ghosal kept the country's hopes alive in the USD 35,000 CCI Open Squash Championships here when he downed Egyptian rival Mohamed Abouelghar 3-1 at the Cricket Club of India's courts today.
Ghosal, world no. 15 and seeded no. 2 here, wore his opponent down without seemingly in full control of his shots. He carved out a 11-9 11-13 11-5 11-9 victory in 55 minutes.
Ghosal would take on Mazen Hesham of Egypt in the semi final tomorrow following the latter's hard-fought 3-2 win over countryman Omar Abdel Meguid in another quarter final clash that lasted 72 minutes.
The other semi final will pit Spain's top-seeded Boria Golan against South Africa's Shaun Le Roux.
In the match against eight-time national champion Ghosal, his Egyptian rival Abouelghar showed flashes of brilliance but was error-prone, which was his undoing.
Ghosal stayed on top of some tricky pick-ups throughout, forcing some overeager errors from Abouelghar.
"It was just a barrage," Ghosal said after the game in praise of his rival's shots.
"There was some ridiculous shot-making by him. I was just telling myself I have to stick in and make it hard for him and hope he can't keep up making the shots he wanted. I had to dig pretty hard to get him frustrated. There was no rhythm whatsoever. I tried to make it as hard as I could," the Indian professional remarked.
His semi final opponent Hesham had a tough match against Meguid that could have gone either way at several points in the play.
"I felt like I got everything from within," Hesham said.
"I really tried in the fifth game. I was panicking a bit because of the injury earlier in the match. But I was really lucky to win this match. This is my first tournament as a top 20 player, so I need to earn my place. I tried my best and am happy with my fighting spirit. I played with all my heart. That's what it takes to win against someone like that.
