Saurav Ghosal became the first Indian ever to win the coveted British Junior Open U-19 Squash title, defeating Adel El Said of Egypt in the final at Sheffield in England.
According to information received from the Squash Rackets Federation of India, 17-year-old Saurav beat his Egyptian rival 9-0 9-6 9-1.
Saurav, seeded five, broke the stranglehold of Egypt and Pakistan at this championship with the emphatic win over Adel El Said and became the first Indian to win the title since its inception in 1980.
The 17-year-old Saurav outran and outplayed his six-foot opponent who was caught on the wrong foot time and again.
Adel El Said, who had accounted for the top seed Khalil Atlas of Pakistan in the quarterfinals, looked like a pale shadow of himself, a SRFI press release said.
Saurav is based at the ICL squash academy in Chennai. It was also the first time that India had finalists in both boys (u-19) and girls u-19 sections.
In the girls final, India's top player Joshna Chinappa, seeded three, fought hard against Egyptian top seed Omneya Abdel Kawy but lost 4-9, 0-9, 7-9. This was Omneya's fourth successive British Junior Open title.
'We ended last year with outstanding results in the Scottish Junior Open in December and have started the year with an incredibly fine achievement. All this due to the hard work put in by all the coaches and the players,' N Ramachandran, SRFI Secretary General, said.
