Squash icon Ghosal announces retirement
NEW DELHI: India’s finest men’s squash player Saurav Ghosal, on Monday, announced his retirement from professional circuit after completing a glittering 22-year journey although he would continue representing India at multi-discipline events for some more time.
Besides winning two gold medals in team events of Incheon and Hangzhou Asian Games, Ghosal has three Commonwealth Games medals and also bagged the yellow metal in the 2022 World Doubles Championships in mixed doubles in Glasgow.
“I started my journey on @ psaworldtour 22 years ago. At the time, I never thought in my wildest dreams, I would play professional squash for so long. As I travelled across the world, playing on some of the biggest stages our wonderful sport offered, I thought it would never come to an end,” 37-year-old Ghosal wrote in a post on his official Instagram handle.
Kolkata-born Ghosal also remains the only Indian man to reach the world’s top 10, achieving that career-high ranking in April 2019 and spending six months there.
Since making his PSA debut in 2003, Ghosal has lifted 10 PSA titles, reaching 18 finals, while he won 281 of his 511 matches on the PSA Tour.
Ghosal also holds a record of 13 Indian Nationals titles wins, with the last of those coming in 2020.
Ghosal, however isn’t completely done with the sport and hopes to represent the flag for some more years.
“Finally, I hope this is not me saying goodbye altogether from competitive squash. I would like to play for India a little while longer. Hopefully, there’s some fight left in me, and I can achieve a bit more for my country. Till then, THANK YOU!”
Ghosal, still available for national duty, does raise hopes of him fulfilling his dream of playing in the Olympics with squash making its debut in the 2028 edition.