The Indian men’s squash team made history when they won their first gold medal at the Asian Championships.
The Men in Blue defeated Kuwait in the final in straight sets to win the 2022 Asian Squash Team Championships in Cheongju, South Korea.
As the Indian team defeated Kuwait 2-0, Saurav Ghosal and Ramit Tandon won all of their games. In the first game, Ramit defeated Ali Aramezi 3-0. Tandon cruised to an 11-5 victory in the first game, but Aramezi fought back to tie the game in the second. However, the Indians persisted and won 11-7. Ramit capitalised on this momentum in the third game, winning 11-4.
Then in the second game, Saurav Ghosal defeated Ammar Altamimi in a breezy win which got off to a tough start. Ghosal and Altamimi were neck and neck in the opening game but the 36-year-old from Kolkata held his nerves and registered an 11-9 victory. Ghosal continued his dominant form in the next two games as well and clinched the gold for India after 11-2 and 11-3 wins.
In the prior rounds of the tournaments, the men’s team of Ramit Tandon, Saurav Ghosal and Abhay Singh were the number one in their pool to enter the semifinals. They took down Qatar, Pakistan, Kuwait, South Korea, and Chinese Taipei 3-0 in their Pool A matches.
Whereas the women’s team comprising Tanvi Khanna, Sunayna Sara Kuruvilla, Anahat Singh and Urvashi Joshi finished second in Pool B with two wins and a loss. The Indians defeated Iran and Singapore 30 but went down 0-3 against Hong K, who finished on top of the pool.
They advanced to the semi-finals, where they were defeated 3-1 by Malaysia. The Indian men’s team has won their first gold medal, while the women’s team has already won a gold medal in 2012. This year’s bronze medal was their fifth overall.