Saurav Ghosal, Joshna Chinappa headline field for Senior

: Saurav Ghosal and Joshna Chinappa headline a strong field in the men's and women's singles events respectively in the 77th Senior National Squash Championship, to be held at the Indian Squash Academy courts here from February 9 to 15.

While Ghosal could face challenge from the likes of Ramit Tandon, Harinder Pal Sandhu and Abhishek Pradhan with defending champion Mahesh Mangaonkar not participating, 17- time champion Chinappa will come up against the likes of Sunayna Kuruvilla, Tanvi Khanna and Urwashi Joshi.

A press note said a total of 402 entries have been received from 25 states for various events, which included the top ten ranked women in country and top seven in the mens section.

The national championship returns to Chennai and to ISA after a gap of nine years.

This would be the fifth time that the ISA would be staging the prestigious championship.

Performance in the tournament would be a criteria for the selection of the men's and women's squads for the Asian Team Championship scheduled in Kuala Lumpur from March 25 to 29.

Apart from the men's and women's singles, the events include pro-Coaches, men-over 35, over 40, over 45, over 50, over 55, over 60 and over 65 sections.

SRFI Secretary-General Cyrus Poncha said that with the Asian Championship in sight, the tournament is bound to produce some high-quality competition.

As part of the 20th anniversary celebration of the ISA, a function would be held on February 14 wherein 30 trainees of the academy who had accounted for the 70 odd national championship titles (all age groups) would be felicitated.