Top seeds Joshna Chinappa and Saurav Ghosal reasserted their supremacy by clinching the women's and men's singles titles respectively in the 55th National Squash Championships which ended in Chennai on Saturday night.
It was seventh national title, fifth in a row, for Joshna, who dropped a game before beating a fighting second seed Dipika Pallikal 9-2, 4-9, 9-5, 9-1 in the final.
Ghosal took the title for the third time when he downed Maharashtra's Siddharth Suchde 9-2, 9-3, 9-0 in the men's final.
Joshna had earlier claimed the title in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005 2006, while Ghosal won in 2005 and 2006.
Joshna was in command always except in the second game in which she committed couple of unforced errors to surrender the initiative.
After the match she admitted laxity, saying, "I took it a little easy and I paid the price."
The start was on expected lines. Joshna's backhand drops worked well as she romped home with the first game 9-2.
Dipika raced to a 7-0 lead before winning the second game as Joshna lapsed in concentration.
But after taking the third game, Joshna attacked at will to wrap the match in 34 minutes.
The men's final turned out to be one-sided affair, though Suchde engaged his rival into long rallies. The difference between the two finalist was that Ghosal, who took just 40 minutes to win the match, made fewer mistakes while Suchde paid the price for failing to score vital points.
"I have played Siddarth before and I know his game well; so I had a gameplan chalked out and I felt I was hitting the ball better," said Ghosal.
Bala Murugan claimed his 10th (fifth in succession) professional title after defeating Dalip Tripathi of West Bengal 9-0, 9-2, 9-5 in 26 minutes.
Results, finals:
Men: Saurav Ghosal (TN) bt Siddarth Suchde (Mah) 9-2, 9-3, 9-0.
Women: Joshna Chinappa (TN) bt Dipika Pallikal (TN) 9-2, 4-9, 9-5, 9-1.
Professionals: Bala Murugan (TN) bt Dalip Tripathi (WB) 9-0, 9-2, 9-5.
