Saurav Ghoshal, Abhay Singh and Mahesh Mangaonkar were the architects of India's gold medal-winning performance in the men's squash event at the Hangzhou Asian Games. They won gold by defeating Pakistan.
The India vs Pakistan squash final was completely thrilling, and it was India who emerged victorious after fighting hard and fighting hard till the end to defeat Pakistan 2-1 and win the Asian Games 2023 men's squash team gold medal. The last time India topped the podium in this event was at the 2014 Incheon Games. Malaysia and Pakistan were India's biggest rivals in this edition and the Saurav Ghoshal-led side was successful in defeating both the opponents.
Ghoshal, Abhay Singh and Mahesh Mangaonkar were the architects of India's gold medal-winning performance in the men's squash event at the Hangzhou Asian Games. The win in the final also avenged India's defeat to arch-rivals Pakistan in the league stage and it was young Abhay who gave India a thrilling win by defeating Noor Zaman in a thrilling encounter.
Abhay Singh
Born to an entrepreneurial couple in Chennai, Abhay watched his neighbors play squash as a child. Abhay's supportive parents enrolled him in a squash program at the age of seven. He competed in his first national level tournament in 2007 at the age of 9 and made his international debut in 2015 at the Professional Squash Association World Tour.
Apart from being currently India's second best singles player after Saurav Ghosal, Abhay has also been doing really well in the mixed doubles category, where he recently won a bronze medal at the Asian Squash Championship with 15-year-old Anahat Singh. The pair is also hoping for a medal in the 2023 Asian Games.
Saurav Ghoshal
India's number one squash singles player Saurav Ghoshal has been a leading player. Saurav has many first achievements in his name. He is the first Indian to be ranked Junior World No. 1, the first Indian to win the Junior National Championships for three consecutive years, and in December 2006, Sourav won the country's first medal in squash at the Doha Asian Games.
His first significant win came in 2002 when he won the German Open in the fifth month of 2002. In 2019, Sourav entered the top 10 in the world rankings.
The 37-year-old from West Bengal has been a professional player for over 20 years. He now has eight Asian Games squash medals to his name, and has not returned empty-handed from the Asiad even once since the 2006 Doha Games.
Mahesh Mangaonkar
Mahesh, 29, was born in Mumbai and currently trains in Helsinki, Finland. Mahesh joined the PSA World Tour in 2009 but had to wait for three years to win his first title. This came at the expense of Lucas Serme in the final at the Prague Open and the Indian claimed back-to-back wins over Greg Lobban in the finals of the IMET Open and Open du Gard in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
Mahesh helped India win the gold medal at the 2014 Asian Games in October 2014 and claimed victory at the Indian Circuit 2 later that month. He broke into the world top 50 for the first time in November 2014 and won his first PSA World Tour title in two years at the 2016 Sekisui Open, where he defeated defending champion Christian Frost.
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