Joshna Chinappa and Saurav Ghosal won the women’s and men’s singles titles at the national squash championship in Noida on Saturday.
The Indian No 1’s played the finals against Lakshya Ravendran and Mahesh Mangaonkar respectively. Chinappa defeated Ravendran in four games 11-6, 8-11, 11-2, 1-4. Ghosal, too, needed four games to get past against Mangaonkar, 11-8, 11-13, 11-9, 11-6, reported PTI.
This was Chinappa’s 15th national singles title and the world No 14 is one title short of equalling Bhuvneshwari Kumari’s record of 16 national trophies. Meanwhile, with his win, Ghosal claimed his 12th national singles crown.
Both players went on to receive equal prize money of Rs 1.5 lakh each, with the total prize purse of the championship extending to over Rs 11 lakh.
Despite its success, the tournament also conspicuously missed the presence of 2016 champion Deepika Pallikal. The Indian No 2 was forced to withdraw the championship right before its start after having strained her ankle.