Saurav Ghosal

Saurav Ghosal (born 10 August 1986, in Kolkata, West Bengal) is a professional squash player from India and reached a career-high world ranking of World No. 15 in December 2013. He completed his schooling at Lakshmipat Singhania Academy in Kolkata.

Career overview

In 2013, Saurav became the first Indian to reach the Quarter finals of the World Squash Championship at Manchester, England. In 2004, he became the first Indian ever to win the coveted British Junior Open Under-19 Squash title, defeating Adel El Said of Egypt in the final at Sheffield, England.

Saurav moved to Chennai after completing his school and was based at the ICL squash academy in Chennai and coached by Major (Rtd) Maniam and Cyrus Poncha in Chennai, India. Currently based in Leeds, he trains with Malcolm Willstrop at Pontefract Squash Club in West Yorkshire. Saurav is the current Indian national champion after he defeated Gaurav Nandrajog at the National Championships 2006 in New Delhi. As of May 2010, his PSA world rank is 27. In the top 100 in the world are two of his Indian Squash Colleagues Siddharth Suchde (80) and Harinder Pal Sandhu (90).

Saurav won the bronze medal at the Asian Games 2006 Doha and was awarded the Arjuna Award by the President of India in August 2007.

Saurav started playing squash in his hometown of Kolkata, at the Kolkata Racquet Club. He did his schooling from Lakshmipat Singhania Academy, before moving to Chennai to join the ICL Squash Academy. Here he was coached by retired Major Maniam and Cyrus Poncha.

Ghosal has numerous firsts to his credit, the first Indian to be ranked junior World No one, the first to bag the junior National championship three years in a row and in December 2006, he won the country the first medal in squash in the Doha Asian Games. His first major title was the German Open (U-17) in May 2002 and he won the Dutch Open two months later.

In 2013, he became the first Indian squash player to reach the quarterfinals of the World Championship.

In 2014, he won the silver medal (individual singles) in the 17th Asian Games at Incheon. He was the first Indian squash player to do so. He lost in the final to Abdullah Al-Muzayen of Kuwait. He however led the Indian Squash team to its first ever Gold Medal at Incheon. In the final he bounced back from a game down to eke out a 6-11 11-7 11-6 12-14 11-9 win over former world no. 7, Ong Beng Hee in a gruelling 88-minute clash to give India a healthy 2-0 lead