India’s top-ranked squash players Saurav Ghosal and Joshna Chinappa will lead the country’s challenge at the prestigious British Open, where the main draw begins in Hull, England, on Tuesday.
The British Open is the oldest and most established tournament in the PSA World Tour calendar. This year the tournament takes place at Hull’s Airco Arena and will see the top players in the world battle it out for the prestigious trophy when the tournament takes place between May 15-20.
Ghosal and Chinappa, ranked 13 and 14 in the world respectively in their categories, are already in the main draw. Ghosal and Chinappas’s opponents are as yet undecided as they await a qualifier from the ongoing rounds.*
Both the men’s and women’s draws are expected to be dominated by Egyptians. The world No 1 among men and women, Mohamed ElShorbagy and Nour El Sherbini, are both in great form coming into the tournament and will be the players to beat.
With the world’s top three among men and women hailing from Egypt in the current rankings, a player from the African nation stands a great chance of emerging with the title.
UPDATE:
*With the qualifying round completed, Ghosal will take on world No 30 Greg Lobban (Scotland) while Chinappa will face Egypts’s Yathreb Adel, ranked 28th in the world.
A couple of Indian challenges ended in the qualification stages as Adrian Waller from England defeated India’s Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu in the final round, 11-8, 11-5, 11-5 on Monday. In the first round of qualifying Waller defeated another Indian in Ramit Tandon 11-4, 11-8, 4-11, 6-11, 11-2 in a match that lasted 52 minutes. Tandon had recently won his first PSA Tour event in Abu Dhabi.