Chinappa, Ghosal advance

BIRMINGHAM: India’s ace squash players Joshna Chinappa and Saurav Ghosal advanced to the round of 16 after easy wins in their respective women’s and men’s singles matches at the Commonwealth Games here on Saturday.

Both Chinappa and Ghosal, who are searching for the elusive CWG gold medal in singles, registered identical 3-0 victories in the round of 32 matches.

Living up to her billing, Chinappa outclassed Meagan Best of Barbados. The 18-time national champion Chinappa won in straight sets (11-8, 11-9, 12-10).

She won the opening two sets without much fuss, but Best came back hard in the third one. However, Chinappa held her nerve to emerge victorious.

The 35-year-old Ghosal steamrolled Shamil Wakeel of Sri Lanka 11-4, 11-4, 11-6.

Ghosal was in complete control from the beginning and the Sri Lankan was simply no match for the Indian.

Meanwhile, Sunayna Sara Kuruvilla’s campaign ended after she lost to Malaysia’s Aifa Azman 7-11, 7-11, 7-11.

India’s Ramit Tandon withdrew from the men’s singles round of 32 match due to an injury. His Jamaican opponent Christopher Binnie thus got a walk-over and sailed into the next round.