Ghosal squandered a two-game lead to go down to World No. 65 Binnie 11-5, 11-7, 8-11, 9-11, 10-12. It was the biggest upset of the day in the individual event
Saurav Ghosal
India's top squash player and third seed, Saurav Ghosal, today suffered a shock defeat against Jamaica's Christopher Binnie in the men's singles second round of the Commonwealth Games here yesterday. Ghosal squandered a two-game lead to go down to World No. 65 Binnie 11-5, 11-7, 8-11, 9-11, 10-12. It was the biggest upset of the day in the individual event.
ADVERTISEMENT
Ghosal had lost the bronze medal play-off in Glasgow four years ago and looked set to better the feat here, having reached a career-high rank of 13 at the start of the month. The 66-minute match had initially looked going Ghosal's way but Binnie fought hard. Varying his returns with clever deception he had the Indian in a tangle.
The match went to the crucial decider when points went close until at 10-9 match point, Saurav thought he had gained a 'stroke' but the referee overruled it to as 'let'. The Jamaican escaped and found the room to push back the Indian and grab the extra two points for a sensational win. It was the first time the two players met.
'Saurav had looked good to go through but the reverse was unexpected,' said coach Cyrus Poncha. Harinder Pal Sandhu, who had gone past the first round in the morning, could not survive against the unseeded Malaysian Ivan Yuen.
In recent times when the two met, Ivan always had an upperhand over the Indian and he proved his ability once again. Except for the first game where the going was close, the Malaysian had little trouble in finding his way to victory. The other Indians in the fray, Vikram Malhotra (seeded 16), as also Joshna Chinappa (8) and Dipika Pallikal Karthik (9) in the women's singles, sailed through to the round of 16.
Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates
This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
