India’s challenge at the Qatar Classic squash tournament came to a close with both Saurav Ghosal and Ramit Tandon losing their second-round matches in the PSA World Tour Platinum tournament at the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex on Monday evening.
Tandon lost to Scott Greg Lobban 8-11, 13-11, 11-9, 11-7. The Indian started on a good note over an opponent ranked much higher in the PSA ranking hierarchy taking the first game at 11-8.
In the second and third games, Tandon had the upper hand in the initial stages taking a handsome lead but allowing his opponent to crawl back and level the scores.
The second game was a closely fought one with the scores tied at 11-all but Tandon had to pay for some silly errors and hit the tin a couple of times to complicate matters for him while Lobban kept his composure to win the second game.
In the third game also Tandon showed glimpses of brilliance taking an early lead but failed to hold on to the lead with the Scot drawing scores at 9-all and finally winning it at 11-9.
In the fourth game, it was Lobban who took a runaway lead and although Tandon made a late fightback it was too late to make a significant effect, with Lobban winning in three games to one and advancing to the third round.
In the second match, Ghosal, India’s highest-ranked player lost in straight games to Youssef Soliman. The Egyptian took 37 minutes to overcome the challenge of Ghosal 11-3, 11-2, 11-6 in 37 minutes.
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