India’s Ghosal Beats Mueller to Win CCI International Title

India’s Saurav Ghosal claimed the biggest PSA World Tour title of his career after he defeated Switzerland’s Nicolas Mueller to lift the JSW Indian Squash Circuit CCI International trophy.

The 31-year-old produced a dominant performance to down World No.27 Mueller and claim his first Tour title in two years – when he lifted the Kolkata International JSW Indian Squash Circuit after beating Egypt’s Marwan ElShorbagy in the final.

Ghosal and Mueller had faced each other three times previously on the PSA World Tour with the ‘Swiss Rocket’ coming out on top in the last two meetings at the J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions earlier this year and at last year’s instalment of the CCI International. However, Ghosal made sure to reverse recent fortunes and write his name into the squash history books as the tournament’s first Indian winner with a virtuoso performance.

The Indian World No.21 came through a tough battle with Egypt’s Omar Mosaad in the semi-finals after beating Welshman Joel Makin and England’s Joshua Masters in the previous rounds. Meanwhile, Mueller had enjoyed a good run of form – dropping just one game en route to the final.

However, home hope Ghosal – who finished runner-up at the tournament in 2015 – proved too much to handle for Mueller as he outmanoeuvred him on court and took advantage of the 28-year-old’s errors to claim the PSA M50 title, much to the delight of the home crowd in Mumbai.

“It’s good to win,” said Ghosal following the final.

“After yesterday I had to recover really well. It was very high quality and very intense match last night.

“Niki has done well to get through the tournament relatively unscathed but I was pleased with how I recovered, the way I put my body back together.

“The last two times I have played Niki he has beaten me, last year here and at the Tournament of Champions in January, so it was always going to be a tough match.

“Like every day I have a plan which I want to execute, whilst doing that I also want to enjoy it but it can be tough sometimes, especially when Niki is slotting the ball away like he was towards the end of the third.

“I’m happy for the majority of the match that I could do what I wanted and win today in front of this crowd.

“We’ve had a pretty busy start to the season, I made a call not to play the U.S. Open because I just thought that there were too many events back-to-back and my body not being able to withstand that, so I think that decision has been pretty good in hindsight. I did well in Channel VAS and Qatar and obviously coming here and winning this tournament.”

Result
[3] Saurav Ghosal (IND) v [5] Nicolas Mueller (SUI) 3-0: 11-6, 11-8, 11-8 (44m)