Saurav Ghosal and Joshna Chinappa will lead the Indian challenge at squash’s oldest tournament – the Allam British Open 2016 – the main draw of which will get under way from March 21 at the Airco Arena in Hull, England. The prestigious event often referred to as the ‘Wimbledon of squash’, will see the return of all of the world’s top 10 players in the men’s section while 9 of the top 10 will be playing in the women’s section.
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For Ghosal, it is a tough opener as he is up against the eighth seed and World No. 10 Mathieu Castagnet of France. If the 19th ranked Indian manages to cross that hurdle, he will meet the winner of the encounter between World No. 11 Marwan Elshorbagy and No. 20 Borja Golan.
The road only gets uphill from there as the fourth seed Omar Mosaad once again awaits in the quarter-finals. The Egyptian is the very same player who had stopped Saurav at the Colombia Open and the Windy City Open in February.
The 29-year-old plays his first round on Tuesday.
In the women’s draw, the India No. 1 Joshna Chinappa has been seeded 14th and faces the 23rd ranked Australian Donna Urquhart in her first match on Monday. Her path too is riddled with dangers as the legendary former World No. 1 Nicol David looms large in the second round.
This is Chinappa’s first tournament since she clinched the women’s singles gold medal at the South Asian Games in early February.
World No. 18 Dipika Pallikal is an absentee from this event and she is expected to come back to the PSA Tour at the Women’s World Championship in April.
