Picture Credit: Twitter
India's number 1 ranked squash player Saurav Ghosal defeated England's James Willstrop in the men's singles bronze medal match to add to India's medal tally at the ongoing Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. The 35-year-old beat his opponent 11-6, 11-1, 11-4 to win the match 3-0. This was India's 15th medal in the ongoing games with the country already having won 5 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze before this.
Notably, the Indian squash player had entered this match as a favourite. The World number 15 took an early lead and made his English rival toil hard for each point on his way to a victory. The former World number 1 Willstrop did not look at the best of his physical ability as well and Ghosal made sure he took advantage of that, making him go to all corners.
Notably, Ghosal had a superb run in the build-up to the semi-final where he lost against New Zealand's Paul Coll 0 -3. Prior to that, the Kolkata-born squash player had lost only one set winning the Round of 32 and Round of 36 convincingly 3-0 against Sri Lanka's Shamil Wakeel and Canada's David Baillargeon respectively. He then even went to beat Scotland's Greg Lobban 3-1 in the quarterfinal.
It was for this reason that his loss against Coll in the semifinal was a bit of a heartbreak for the Indian contingent. However, on Wednesday, Ghosal made sure that he will not return empty-handed as he dominated the bronze medal fixture. Notably, this is not Ghosal's first medal in the Commonwealth Games. The former world number 10 had clinched the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games 2018 which happened in Gold Coast, Australia.