Thaindian News

New Delhi, Dec 15 (IANS) Saurav Ghosal went down fighting to England’s Peter Barker in the pre-quarterfinals of the Punj Lloyd Squash Masters here Thursday, ending India’s challenge in the $165,000 event. Title favourite James Willstrop and Daryl Selby
were the other two Englishmen who made it to the last eight.

World no. 29 Ghosal lost 5-11, 8-11, 11-6, 5-11 to seventh-ranked Barker to exit the tournament in the round of 16 for the third year in a row.

Ghosal, coming from a convincing win in the first round, was not allowed to play to his strengths. The powerful forehands and superior court coverage gave Barker the favourable result.

Apart from some stunning strokeplay, Barker also got the advantage of playing left-hand as Ghosal kept on giving balls to his preferred forehand side. The best demonstration of Barker’s main weapon came early in the first set when he struck a sliced crosscourt forehand smash, ensuring the ball drops dead close to the wall.

Ghosal did well to win the third set but it was more to do with Barker’s unforced errors than his improved effort.

“He played extremely well for most part of the match. He kept putting pressure on with his powerful strokes. I will have to come out with different plans the next time I play him. In the third set I hit a purple patch but I need to play like that for the whole match if I have any chance of winning against these top guys,” said Ghosal.

The Indian had lost to Barker with an identical scoreline in the 2010 Commonwealth Games here.

Barker plays top seed Ramy Ashour of Egypt in the quarterfinals. Ashour defeated Australia’s Cameron Pilley 11-5, 12-14, 11-3, 11-4.

Earlier, World No. 2 Willstrop and Selby set-up a quarterfinal clash after hard fought victories.

Willstrop maintained his 100 percent record against Botswana’s Alister Walker with a 12-10, 11-4, 11-5 win in another round of 16 match. It was Willstrop’s seventh straight victory over Walker.

Seventeenth-ranked Walker, however, did have his moments in the first set. He matched his fancied opponent stroke to stroke with both producing fast-paced squash. The diminutive Walker had to go for his shots against the lanky Willstrop, who smartly mixed between playing deep and subtle touches close to the wall. Walker had great to chance to close out the set on 10-9 but an unforced error off his forehand denied him the opportunity. As expected, Willstrop secured the set with a nicely placed forehand smash.

The title favourite stamped his authority on the match by winning the next two games easily.

“It was quite a fast-paced match. Alister made things tough for me in the first set but after that I took control of it. The court is quite fast and it looks like fast-paced style of squash is the order of the week,” predicted Willstrop.

World no. 16 Selby was stretched by Germany’s Simon Rosner, a player ranked eight places lower than him. The Englishman eventually prevailed 11-7, 11-6, 8-11, 11-5 in 68 minutes.