With decisive victories in the PSA World Tour Platinum competition on Sunday at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, Indians Saurav Ghosal and Ramit Tandon advanced to the second round of the Qatar Classic Squash Championship.
Balazs Farkas of Hungary was defeated by Ghosal in 39 minutes to proceed to the next round. The World No. 17 had a difficult beginning to the opening game but quickly recovered to win it 11-6. He continued along the same path to win the second game 11-8.
The Hungarian forced Ghosal to work hard for every point in the third game, and the score was knotted at 11 all, but the top-ranked Indian player broke away to win the third and final game and the match in straight games.
Tandon advanced to the second round after defeating Canadian David Baillargeon in three games to one.
He easily won the first two games with similar scores of 11-5, but lost the third game with a score of 11-9. After that, he made a great comeback to win the fourth game 11-5 and the match in 41 minutes.
The only two Indian competitors in the week-long event, which includes the best athletes from the men’s and women’s divisions, are Ghosal and Tandon.
The women’s competition, which was last held in 2015, is returning to Qatar after an absence of eight years.
