By IANS,
Chennai: World No. 29 Saurav Ghosal, the lone Indian in the Chennai Open squash tournament, went down fighting to Jonathan Kemp of England 15-13, 13-15, 9-11, 6-11 in 58 minutes here Saturday.
It was a rarity to watch such a worthy and enjoyable match between two technically sound players, but Kemp (ranked 21) had the extra bit as he set up a title clash against top seed Ong Beng Hee (ranked 19) of Malaysia in the final Sunday.
Ong survived an almost two-hour marathon against stroke maker Mohd. Ali Anwar Reda of Egypt to win 9-11, 11-8, 11-7, 7-11, 12-10 in 116 minutes.
The women’s final will be between World No.1 Nicol David of Malaysia and second seeded Jenny Duncalf of England. As was seen in the earlier matches, David was business like in her 11-2, 11-4, 11-4 win over seventh seeded Aussie, Kasey Brown, while Duncalf had an easy time beating sixth seed Camillee Serme of France 11-6, 11-9, 11-8 (30 mins).
In a defensive oriented men’s first semifinal, Ong, a physically fitter player and known for playing �long’ stood to his ground in returning the ball, but the Egyptian had greater felicity in 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 heart-warming second semi-final, Kemp and Ghosal playing against each other for the first time in PSA circuit, shared the opening two games. Initially, Kemp had a sizeable lead but allowed Ghosal to level the score 10-10 and then had his way to win over the extra points.
In the second game, Kemp was superior both technically and otherwise. Ghosal was also equally responding with elegant drops and power packed straight drives and led of 7-0. But it was short lived as Kemp tightened his grips on the game and forced the Indian to commit errors.
Thus, the 29-year-old Kemp went on to level the score 10-10 and then made his younger opponent to often run from front to back for returns and Ghosal was also tiring out.
In the next two games, Kemp was at his best and in fact led 8-0 in the fourth and then remained relaxed before winning the game and the match in 58 minutes.
Results (semifinals):
PSA: 1-Ong Beng Hee (Malaysia) bt 3-Mohd.Ali Anwar Reda (Egypt) 9-11, 11-8, 11-7, 7-11, 12-10 (116 mins); 2-Jonathan Kemp (England) bt 4-Saurav Ghosal (India) 13-15, 15-13, 11-9, 11-6 (58 mins).
WISPA: 6-Jenny Duncalf (England) bt 6-Camille Serme (France) 11-6, 11-9, 11-8 (30 mins); 1-Nicol David (Malaysia) bt 7-Kasey Brown (Australia) 11-2, 11-4, 11-4 (23 mins).