Squash: India
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Contents |
Asian Juniors/ U-15
2022
Anahat Singh wins Asian junior squash title in U-15 category
Promising Indian player Anahat Singh won the gold medal in the girls Under-15 category at the Asian Juniors Squash Championships in Pattaya, Thailand. The tournament, which started in the picturesque beach town on Wednesday, concluded on Sunday. The 14-year-old Anahat defeated Kwong Ena of Hong Kong 3-0 in the final to claim the top prize.
Asian Team Championship
2021
A
Kuala Lumpur: The Indian men and women booked semifinal berths at the 20th Asian squash Team Championship with wins in their final league matches. While the Indian men’s team routed Indonesia 3-0, the women put it across Iran 3-0.
B: Indian men reach final
Asian Team Squash: Indian men reach final
Kuala Lumpur: The topseeded Indian men booked a spot in the final of the 20th Asian squash Team Championship with a 2-0 win over Hong Kong in the semifinals. However, the women’s team, seeded third, went down 1-2 to Hong Kong in the semifinals despite the No.1 player Joshna Chinappa giving them the lead.
Malaysian Open
2021: Saurav Ghosal wins title
Saurav Ghosal wins Malaysian Open squash tournament:
Indian squash player Saurav Ghosal won his first PSA title in three years when he triumphed at the Malaysian Open with a straight set win over top seed Miguel Rodriguez in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday. Second seed and ranked 15th in the world, Ghosal defeated Rodriguez 11-7 11-8 13-11 in 55 minutes to win his 10th PSA title. AGENCIES
PSA World doubles championships
2022
Dipika teams up with Saurav, Joshna for World doubles titles in squash
Dipika Pallikal may have been off the sport for over three years but the 30-year-old returned to competitive squash in style as she played a part in India winning two gold medals — their first-ever — at the PSA World doubles championships in Glasgow on Saturday. Dipika first teamed up with Saurav Ghosal to pocket the mixed doubles gold defeating the English pair — Adrian Waller and Alison Waters 11-6, 11-8. Dipika then teamed up with Joshna Chinappa in the women’s doubles final to get the better of England’s Sarah-Jane and Alison Waters 11-9, 4-11, 11-8, reports Prasad R S.
2014
Dec 31 2014
SQUASHING SUCCESS (DIPIKA PALLIKAL, JOSHANA CHINAPPA, SAURAV GHOSAL & HARINDER SANDHU)
2014 was a watershed year for Indian squash. Firstly, the combine of Dipika Pallikal and Joshana Chinappa pocketed India's first-ever CWG gold. The Tamil Nadu girls promise much in the coming year too. At Incheon, Saurav Ghosal choked on the cusp of history, missing out on an individual gold, when he lost to Kuwait's Abdullah Al-Muzayen in the final after leading by two games. He also squandered a match point.
But the 28-year-old made up for the heartbreak by leading the Indian team of Kush Kumar, Mahesh Mangaonkar and Harinder Pal Sandhu to a maiden Asian Games gold.
2017
Junior Squash
India clinches gold in Asian junior squash
India clinch gold in Asian junior squash, Feb 06 2017: The Times of India
Top seed India defeated Malaysia 2-0 to win the gold medal in the boy's team event at the Asian Junior Squash championship.
Indian boys had won the title for the second time, the earlier being in 2011 when they defeated arch-rivals Pakistan in Colombo.
Fresh from his Asian in dividual and British Junior Open successes, India's no.1 player Velavan Senthilkumar first defeated second seed Malaysia's Ong Sai Hun in quick time. Then Abhay Singh prevailed over Darren Rahul in hard-fought five games to lift the title for India.
2018
Asian Junior Individual Squash Championships
3 Indians in quarterfinals
September 27, 2018: The Times of India
Three Indians – Utkarsh Baheti, Rutvik Rau and Tushar Shahani – moved into the quarterfinals in the U-19 boys’ section on the opening day of the Asian Junior Individual Squash Championships here on Wednesday. However, there was disappointment in store for Rahul Baitha – the other Indian in the fray – after he went down to Pakistan’s Abbas Zeb 7-11, 7-11, 9-11.
Zeb, who is Pakistan’s most experienced player among the current lot, had a minor hiccup early on when he was trailing 6-7, but fought back with five straight points to clinch the opening game. The next two games followed a similar pattern, with Rahul staying in the contest till the halfway stage of both games. But when it really mattered, Zeb just had too much in the reserve for his Indian counterpart.
At the same time, Rahul’s tendency to make unforced errors also contributed to his early exit.
While Rahul was unable to raise his game and move ahead, compatriot Utkarsh notchedup a hard-fought11-8,7-11, 11-4, 12-10 victory over Pakistan’s Uzair Shaukat. He will now face Zeb in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
Rutvik also had a confidence-boosting 11-6, 11-1, 11-3 victory against Malaysia’s Pheshant Sri Nagesh on Wednesday, but he faces a daunting battle against top seed Siow Yee Xian of Malaysia in the last-eight stage. The Malaysian brushed aside Qatar’s Hamad Mohammad Al Amri 11-3, 11-6, 11-6 in the second round.
Ghosal rises to career-high 11th
October 4, 2018: The Times of India
Indian squash player Saurav Ghosal has risen one rung to a career-high 11th in the latest world rankings. Also moving up was veteran Joshna Chinappa, who jumped two positions to be 14th in the rankings for women. She is now just four spots away from clinching her career-best 10th spot, achieved a little less than two years ago. However, Dipika Pallikal Karthik dropped four rungs to be on 23. Harinder Pal Sandhu improved to 57th from 60th, while Ramit Tandon took the 59th position, an improvement of five rungs. (The Times of India)
2019
Asian Individual Championship
Ghosal, Chinappa enter final
Ghosal, Chinappa storm into final Kuala Lumpur:
The two stars of Indian squash -- the men's top seed Saurav Ghosal and reigning champion Joshna Chinappa -- stormed into the final of the Asian Individual Squash Championship with convincing semifinal victories here on Saturday. Women's second seed Joshna defeated sixth seed Sivasangari Subramaniam of Malaysia 11-7, 12-10, 11-3 while Ghosal ousted the seventh seed Eain Yow Ng of Malaysia 11-2, 11-6, 11-4.
Saurav, Joshna win Asian titles
May 6, 2019: The Times of India
Saurav, Joshna win titles
Kuala Lumpur:
In a memorable day for India, Saurav Ghosal and Joshna Chinappa won the individual titles in the Asian Squash Championship here Sunday. Joshna Chinappa, the second seed, successfully defended her title, beating the top seed Annie Au of Hong Kong 11-5, 8-11,11-6,11-6 in thesummitclash.
Ghosal, the top seed and finalist last year, ensured there was no slip this time when he downed the fourth seed Leo Au Chun Ming, also of Hong Kong, in straight games11-9,11-2,11-8.
It easily was one of Joshna's most memorable matches. Only last month in the Macau Open, Annie had beaten her in straight games for her 12th win in 20 meetings between the two.
In fact, not since September 2017 in the Hong Kong International Open has Joshna tasted success against the Hong Kong player. All that was set aside as the Indian played with a fixity of purpose and with lot of conviction.
She slipped in the second to send jitters in the Indian camp but recovered superbly to beat all of Annie's designs and carve out a win.
“I thought I really played well in the final. I had lost to Annie few times prior to this. So I had come prepared,” Joshna said after the win.
Ghosal, on his part, never allowed anything to go astray as he meticulously worked his way to a convincing win. Except for the first and to some extent in the third, there was little that the Hong Kong player could do in terms of a fight as Ghosal covered himself with glory, his maiden success at this level. PTI
Black Ball Open, Cairo
Joshna beats Nicol for third time
March 14, 2019: The Times of India
India's leading squash player Joshna Chinappa pulled off a sensational win over eight-time world champion Nicol David in a first round match of the $07,000 Women's Black Ball Squash Open here. The Indian, playing with a lot of fire and purpose, got the better of the Malaysian legend 11-8, 11-6, 12-10 in a match.
It was Joshna's third win over 21st-ranked Nicol, who will retire at the end of the season. The 16th-ranked Indian had also beaten Nicol during the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia.
Joshna wins record 17th national title
Kabeer Khan, June 17, 2019: The Times of India
Joshna wins record 17th national title
Pune: Joshna Chinappa
defeated Tamil Nadu’s Sunayna Kuruvilla 11-5, 11-4, 7-11, 11-5 to win her 17th senior national crown on Sunday. With the win, Joshna has now won a record number of national titles, eclipsing Rajasthan’s Bhuvneshwari Kumari’s mark of 16. Bhuvneshwari had held the record for 27 years, having won consecutive championships from 1976 to 1991.
Sunayna, 19, never looked like a challenge to Joshna, who showed no complacency whatsoever. “I have looked at the nationals as something very prestigious. I have always wanted to play it and I told myself that I’ll play as many as I can,” she told TOI .
“Nationals are something you look forward to when growing up. And when you get a chance to play something like this, I don’t know why you should not do it even after reaching a great level,” said Joshna. “Whenever I am fit, I will play the nationals,” she added.
The last decade of female squash in India has known just two names: Joshna and Dipika Pallikal. The latter has not featured in many tournaments lately, but the duo has been largely dominant.
PSA rankings
2019: Ghosal no. 10 (first Indian); Joshna no.15
Ghosal becomes first Indian to enter top-10 in men’s PSA rankings, April 2, 2019: The Times of India
Saurav Ghosal became the first Indian male squash player to enter the top-10 in the latest PSA world rankings. Two Indian women squash players — Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal — had earlier reached top-10 in the world rankings.
Riding on his recent performances, Ghosal has moved up two places to a career-high ranking of 10. Ghosal made it to the quarterfinals of the 2018-2019 PSA World Championships in Chicago, USA for the first time in his career. He was also a quarterfinalist at the prestigious Grasshopper Cup in Zurich, Switzerland.
In the women’s rankings, Joshna continued to be the bestranked Indian, moving up to the 15th position.
2020: Joshna in top-10
India’s squash star Joshna Chinappa has broken back into the top-10 of the PSA world rankings following the shock retirement of Egyptian world No. 1 Raneem El Welily. Joshna, who has not played since March due to the pandemic, moved up a spot to be in 10th position. The 33-year-old had entered the top-10 for the first time in 2016. Dipika Pallikal is the other Indian female player who has achieved the fea
