Picture Credit: Twitter
Indian squash ace Saurav Ghosal loses 3-0 against New Zealand's Paul Coll in the men's semi-final. Ghosal was put on the back foot in the opening game as his Kiwi opponent was all over the floor. Coll held his own and took a nail-biting 11-9 win with a massive lunge.
In the second game, Ghosal was again put under pressure as he was down 4-7 in quick succession. Building on the momentum, Coll sealed the second game with a huge margin of 11-4.
Coll then just ran through Saurav Ghosal in the third game as he registered another massive 11-1 win to qualify for the finals. Ghosal, ranked 15th in the world, will play the loser of the second semifinal between James Willstrop of England and Wales' Joel Makin in the bronze play-off on Wednesday.
Before entering the semi-final he had an incredible performance against Scotland's Greg Lobban 11-5, 8-11, 11-7 11-3 as recovered well after losing the second set. Ghosal has been a veteran of Indian Squash as he won over 13 major medals since turning pro in 2003. At age 35, he was contemplating whether this would or wouldn't be the last tournament.
While speaking in an interview, he addressed his career so far and how hard he had been working for achieving that elusive Gold medal. He said, “I don’t know if this is my last one, maybe it is. I’ve done everything I’ve possibly could to be as ready as I possibly can for this event. I’ve put all the work in, I’ve worked very hard."
"Now it’s just a question of me executing it and putting it all together. I’ll do my best. Hopefully, it’ll take me to that gold medal, and we can all be happy at the end of if it all,” he continued.
Ghosal then opened up about how bagging the gold medal would add some 'gloss' to his long career as it would look shiny and bright when looking back at it. He said, “Winning the gold medal will add a little bit more gloss to the career that I’ve had. It’s always nice to look back at a little bit more gloss. A little bit of shine will be more than welcome.”