Ghosal reaches semis; Pallikal loses

Third seed Saurav Ghosal continued his fine run of form when the Indian reached the semi-final of the Financiere Banque Nationale Montreal Open squash tournament with an emphatic 3-1 win over Egypt's Omar Abdel Azaiz, here today.
Ghosal, the highest-ranked Indian of all-time who celebrated a best-ever world number 17 this month, defeated his 30-year-old Egyptian opponent in less than an hour, winning 11-3 11-4 2-11 11-4.
"Happy to win my match 3-1 today," Ghosal tweeted after the match.
"Aziz played some good stuff but thankfully my squash was better than yesterday!" wrote the 27-year-old from Kolkata later.
Ghosal will meet Spanish favourite Borja Golan in the semi-final of the PSA World Tour International 35 squash event in its fifth year.

Golan, the world No.9 from Santiago de Compostela, prevailed in a marathon battle which lasted 102 minutes to beat Scotland's world No.32 Alan Clyne 9-11 12-10 11-5 11-9.

In New York, Pallikal, however, went down to world number one Nicol David of Malaysia in straight games in the quarter-final of the Carol Weymuller Open tournament.
India's number one female player Pallikal, who had defeated Australia's No.8 seed Kasey Brown yesterday to make the quarters, lost 7-11 5-11 4-11 in the Women's Squash Association Gold 50 event celebrating its 40th anniversary at The Heights Casino in Brooklyn.
"I'm tired after my long match yesterday. When you play Nicol you have to be fresh to have a chance," said Pallikal.

"I started well in the first game and she just got tighter in the second and third which made me go for more shots and she just got onto the balls. I've had a good tournament and I've got a lot to learn. It's all a learning process for me. I really made use of this tournament and hopefully I'll come back in a week or so in Macau and play well. You've got to take the positives and learn from it," the Chennai-girl added.