India's Harinder Pal Sandhu claimed his second title on the JSW Indian
Squash Challenger Circuit when he beat Egyptian Shehab Essam Hosny in
the final of the third PSA Challenger 10 event at the National Sports
Club of India in Mumbai.
Sandhu was successful in the opening tournament of the series in Jaipur
– but then went out in the quarter-finals of event No.2 in Mumbai,
losing in four games to the lower-ranked Hosny.
So revenge was uppermost in his mind when the top seed from Chennai
lined up against the Egyptian for the second time in just over a week –
Sandhu celebrating the eighth PSA World Tour final of his career and
19-year-old Hosny, the fourth seed, his first after upsetting Kuwait's
No.2 seed Ammar Altamimi in the semi-finals.
Sandhu recovered from 1-7 down in the opener to take the first game –
and again came from behind in the second to extend his lead to 2/0.
But the local hero was dominant in the third and closed out the match
11-9, 11-7, 11-7 in 50 minutes to secure the fourth Tour title of his
career.
“It went better than expected," explained the Chandigarh-born
25-year-old later. "It’s only been a week since I lost to him the 3/1 in
quarterfinals at Juhu.
"I knew from the first point today that he’d come out fighting," added
Sandhu. "I had to stick to the side walls or keep him behind me. It
wasn’t working till I was 7-1 down in the first game. But from then, I
just kept the pressure on.”
