Asian Games 2023 Squash: Saurav Ghosal, Deepika Pallikal-Harinder Sandhu storm into finals

Sourav entered his second squash singles final.

The day of October 4 was overall a good day for the squash contingent at Asian Games 2023, as the face of Indian squash Saurav Ghoshal entered in his second squash singles final to hunt for his maiden gold in the singles event.

Elsewhere, veterans Deepika Pallikal and Harindar Pal Sindhu stormed into their maiden Asian Games finals. Unfortunately, the young pair of Abhay Singh and Anahat Singh suffered a heartbreaking loss to the Malaysian pair of Azman Aifa and Kamal Mohammad Syafiq, but they secured their maiden individual event medal by reaching the semi-finals.

Mixed doubles semi-finals

The veteran mixed doubles pair of Harinder Sandhu and Deepika Pallikal sailed into India's maiden mixed double finals in squash. They defeated the Hong Kong mixed doubles pair of Ka Yi Lee and Chi Him Wong. The veteran duo lost the first game by 7-11 but bounced back to win the second 11-7.

In the final game, when they had a lead of 8-6, the Hong Kong duo tried to mount a comeback by taking the next two points. But Harinder and Deepika held their nerves and sealed the finals spot by taking the next two points with the score at 9-9.

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The duo will fight for their country's first-ever mixed doubles gold with Binti Azman Aifa and Bin Mohd Kamal Mohammad of Malaysia at 11:30am IST on October 5.

Meanwhile, Anahat and Abhay Singh suffered a heartbreaking loss to the Malaysian mixed doubles pair of Azman Aifa and Kamal Mohammad Syafiq. The young Indian duo won the first game easily by 11-8. But, then in the second game the Malaysians came back strong to win in dominant fashion by 11-2.

In the deciding game, they were leading at one point by 9-6 and it looked set to be an all-Indian mixed doubles final, but the Malaysian duo had other plans.

Due to some errors from young Anahat, the Indian duo lost the final game by 9-11. They had to settle for a well-deserved bronze medal. The duo won their second medal in their debut Asian Games, after both also won medals in the team events.

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Men's singles semi-finals

The face of Indian squash WR 19 Saurav Ghoshal stormed into only his second singles final after Asian Games 2014, where he lost to his Kuwaiti opponent in the gold medal match. He will now fight for his and the nation's maiden Individual gold medal in squash when he will face top seed NG Eain Yow of Malaysia.

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He thrashed world ranked 47 Leung Chi Henry of Hong Kong in straight games (11-2,11-1,11-6) to storm into the Asian Games 2023 men's singles finals. Saurav, the legend of Indian squash will face NG Eain Yow of Malaysia at 2:30pm on October 5.