The duo seemed relaxed in the picturesque vicinity of the Cricket Club of India. And why wouldn’t they be?
The duo seemed relaxed in the picturesque vicinity of the Cricket Club of India. And why wouldn’t they be? Top seeds and reigning champions for a number of years, Saurav Ghosal and Joshna Chinappa are favourites to win the 58th Senior National Squash Championship being held here.
The national championship may not be the most illustrious tournament on their calendar but these two, who are at the top of the country’s men’s and women’s rankings, consider it an important event of the year for their own game as well as Indian squash as a whole.
“Being the national champion is great. I have never considered it as an end-point because I always like to measure my game from a global yardstick but participation in this tournament is vital for squash in the country,” said Ghosal.
“It is my dream to win a World Team Squash Championship and a team gold medal at the Asian Games for the country. The only way we can have a good team is if a number of players play at the highest level constantly,” added the world No 22.
While Ghosal can face some competition from Siddharth Suchde and Harinderpal Singh Sandhu, Joshna is not expected to have much trouble to win the title as Deepika Palikal, India’s other women’s squash player in the top 30 of the world rankings, is injured and not participating in the tournament.
The world No 36 said, “Most of the girls ranked 3rd onwards in the country are very young; around 15-16. They are still in school and are still dealing with the great Indian dilemma of whether to pursue the sport as a career or concentrate on their studies. Once they make the choice, they will be much better at the game as they can then play it full time.
“I believe that international circuit is totally different from these domestic tournaments, however, playing other good players from the country is an important step as it gives a player a lot of practice. Not too many players can afford to go abroad and play the international tournaments on their own so the national championship is where they can get the exposure before they can find the support.”
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