Saurav Ghosal's dream run in the World Squash Championship came to an end when he suffered a straight-game defeat against defending champion and world number one Ramy Ashour from Egypt in the quarter-finals, here.
Ghosal, who made history by becoming the first Indian ever to reach the world championship last-eight stage, put up a brave fight before running out of steam against the top seed from Cairo, losing 9-11 5-11 9-11 in a 48-minute contest at Manchester Central late last night.
It was Ashour's fourth successive quarter-final berth in the championship, which he won last year and in 2008.
Ghosal, who went into the match without a win against the Egyptian in the last four meetings, made an impressive start as he led 8-4 and 9-6 in the first game.
But the 26-year-old, later described by Ghosal as "the most original squash player I have ever seen", came up with a series of scintillating shots to recover from the deficit and take the game.
Ashour raced to a 9-1 lead before taking game two. It was nip and tuck throughout the third until nine-all. After a long rally, Ashour played a deft backhand volley into the nick, then clinched the match after a further lengthy exchange which concluded when Ghosal put the ball into the tin.
