Ghosal crashes out of Chennai Open squash

Chennai: Sourav Ghosal went down fighting to Jonathan Kemp of England in semifinal as India`s challenge at

the PSA Chennai Open squash championship came to an end here today. It was a see-saw battle between world number 29 Ghosal and Kemp, which the Indian lost 15-13 13-15 9-11 6-11 in 58 minutes at the Indian Squash Academy glass court. Kemp, 21st in world ranking, now plays top seed Ong Beng Hee of Malaysia in the final tomorrow. Hee survived several anxious moments before getting thebetter of Mohd Ali Anwar Reda of Egypt in the other semifinal. Meanwhile, the women`s final will be between world number one Nicol David and Jenny Duncalf of Australia. Top seed David beat seventh seed Australian Kasey Brown 11-2 11-4 11-4, while second seed Duncalf had an easy time beating Camillee Serme (6th seed) of France 11-6 11-9 11-8 in 30 minutes. In men`s first semifinal Hee, a physically fitter player, stood to his ground in returning the ball but the Egyptian put up good competition by retrieving difficult returns to score points. Often Reda, who rose to a 6-2 lead in the first game, was not slackened in his approach in the next games too. In the second semifinal, Kemp and Ghosal playing against each other for the first time in PSA circuit had their own share of spoils. In the first game, Kemp had a sizeable lead but allowed Ghosal to level the score 10-10 and then had his way of winning the extra points to go one-up. With the rivals matching each other in returning every shot the tie generated great interest to a goodly Saturday crowd. In the second, Kemp was superior both technically and otherwise and had the knack of getting the better of the top Indian. Ghosal was also responding with elegant drops and power packed straight drives opened up a 7-0 lead, but it was short-lived as Kemp tightened grips on the game to and forced the Indian to commit errors. Thus, 29-year-old Kemp went on to level the score 10-10 and then made his younger opponent often run from front to back for returns. In the next two games, Kemp was at his best and led 8-0 in the fourth and then remained relaxed before winning the game and also the match in 58 minutes. PTI