Ghosal, Joshna clinch Nat'l titles

Saurav Ghosal and Joshna Chinappa emerged the men’s and women’s champion in the HCL 74th National squash championship at Shiv Nadar University Indoor Complex here on Saturday.

Top seed Ghosal, who clinched his 12th national title, won 11-8, 11-13, 11-9, 11-6 against Mahesh Mangaonkar to defend his title. The only blip in his otherwise strong performance was when he dropped a game for the first time in the tournament. Mangaonkar, fresh from his semifinal victory over former champion and second seed Harinder Pan Singh Sandhu, took the second game in a tight finish to draw parity. However, he could not build on the advantage. Ghosal fought back and sealed the issue.

Ghosal, World No 27, was all praise for Mangaonkar. “I am happy to win another title. But he played very well. I had to dig quite deep,” he said.

In the women’s singles, Joshna, too, lost focus in the second game before fighting back with force against Lakshya Ragavendran. Joshna, who had lost in the last year’s final to Dipika Pallikal, clinched her 15th title with 11-6, 8-11, 11-2, 11-4 victory.

Both Ghosal and Joshna pocketed an equal prize money of Rs 1.5 lakh each from the total prize purse of Rs 11,02,500.

Results (all finals): Men’s singles: Saurav Ghosal bt Mahesh Mangaonkar 11-8, 11-13, 11-9, 11-6.

Women’s singles: Joshna Chinappa bt Lakshya Ragavendran 11-6, 8-11, 11-2, 11-4.