Indians disappoint on opening day of Punj Lloyd PSA Masters

New Delhi: It turned out to be a disappointing outing for Indian racqueters at the Punj Lloyd

PSA Masters 2010 squash event as they lost all their respective opening round matches to bow out of the championship at the Siri Fort Sports Complex, here today. Much was expected of wild card entrant Harinder Pal Sandhu, qualifiers Sandeep Jangra and Siddharth Suchde but the trio failed to impress, at the star-studded field led by newly-crowned world champion Nick Matthew and James Willstrop of England and living legend Amr Shabana of Egypt. 16th seed and country`s top-ranked player, Saurav Ghosal, has now been left with the daunting task of carrying the tri-colour further in the USD 1,92,500 event, the tenth and final event of the 2010 PSA Super Series. Ghosal will play English qualifier Adrian Weller tomorrow in the opening round of the other half of the main draw at the centre court, but his chances of advancing further into the championship looks extremely difficult as he would be facing third seed and world ranked sixth Shabana in the pre-quarterfinals. All other top seed men`s players including second seed James Willstrop, sixth seed Egypt`s Wael El Hindi, 10th seed Australian Cameron Pilley and seventh seed The Netherlands`s Laurens Jan Anjema advanced to the pre-quarters of the five-day-long event, winning their respective matches. Meanwhile, in the first match of the day involving Suchde and Hindi, the Indian gave a glimpse of his fighting abilities. Though the Indian lost 10-12, 5-11, 7-11 in straight games in 27 minutes, the famed Australian later admitted that he more than once lost his way against the never-say-die Suchde. In the first game, Suchde was leading Hindi 4-1 and 10-8 before conceding the game 10-12 owing to a slight error of judgement in the end moments. In the second and third, Hindi maintained the lead throughout and never gave his world ranked 94th opponent a chance to claw his way back. PTI