Squash star Ghosal aims to breach top-10 barrier in 2014

Saurav Ghosal, the highest ranked Indian player of all-time, is hoping to build up on a successful 2013 by getting his 2014 campaign off to a winning start at the iconic Tournament of Champions beginning here Jan 17.

Ghosal made history last year by becoming the first Indian player ever to reach the quarter-final stage of the World Squash Championship before reaching a career high World No.15 ranking in December and the former Pontefract-based player is hungry to continue his rise in the new year.

"The year 2013 was a good year for me and I have progressed up the rankings but I'm not going to get complacent because I want to keep improving and getting better as a player," said Ghosal.

"I had a fantastic eight years of living in Leeds and training in Pontefract with Malcolm Willstrop, but I made a decision to move back to India in the summer of 2013.

"It's been great to be closer to my family and friends and that might be reflecting in my performances on the court. However, I do miss the squash in Pontefract and try to go back there whenever I can.

"But the aim for me now is to keep training hard and pushing myself all the time and hopefully I can maintain that attitude throughout the year and look to break into the top 10.

"It all begins in New York so a good performance there will be the perfect start for me and give me the confidence to keep pushing myself throughout the coming months."

The PSA World Tour gets back underway at the Tournament of Champions which takes place in the stunning setting of New York's Grand Central Station from Jan 17-24, a location Ghosal says is one of the most impressive in world sport.

"Playing the Tournament of Champions at Grand Central Station in New York is just unbelievable," he said.

"The aura of the location is very special and the vibe that you get from being there as a player, with big crowds watching and the atmosphere of activity within the station, is second to none and it always makes the occasion feel like a real show-time event," the Kolkata-based player concluded.