Chennai: Top-ranked Indians in the squash circuit, top-seeds Saurav Ghosal and Joshna Chinappa bagged the men's and women's titles for a record 13th and 18th time respectively.
While Saurav thrashed Abhishek Pradhan 11-6, 11-5, 11-6 in the men's final, Joshna Chinappa survived a rare scare to outdo Tanvi Khanna 8-11, 11-6, 11-4, 11-7 in the women’s summit clash.
23-year-old Tanvi showcased her class in the first game after rattling the champion with finely executed drops and attacking play from the backcourt. Taking an 8-2 lead, Tanvi looked to close the game soon but Joshna clawed her way back to 6-8 before the youngster wrapped up the game with 11-8 margin.
The 33-year-old however asserted her dominance from the second game as she pushed her opponent to the backcourt with neat angles to win 11-6. In the third game, Tanvi put up a fight but had to eventually go down again to Joshna.
Trailing 3-5 in the fourth, Joshna levelled at 5-each before eventually winning the game 11-4.
“I wasn’t expecting an easy match,” said Joshna, on the final. “She (Tanvi) comes prepared before matches. She has improved a lot. This was my hardest match in the Nationals in the last 15 years. My goal is to do well in the 2022 Commonwealth Games.”
Saurav, on the other hand, had no trouble in defeating Abhishek. He led comfortably in all the three games before outdoing his opponent.
Saurav was happy to have tried out a few patters in the event. “I wanted to try out a few things here. A lot of it was executed,” he said.
