India squash veteran Saurav Ghosal's dream of a multi-event singles Gold faced another delay as the 37-year-old lost the final in the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou to Malaysia's Eain Yow. Ghosal, who is yet to win a singles Gold in either of Asiad or Commonwealth Games, won the first set 11-9 but went on to lose three sets on the bounce as Eain Yow proved to be too strong for his Indian counterpart. Ghosal's Silver ended Indian challenge in squash with five medals.
This is Ghosal's fifth medal in the Asian Games after a Bronze in Doha 2006, 2010 Guangzhou, 2018 Jakarta and a Silver medal in the 2014 Incheon Games. Ghosal has won a Gold in team events in Incheon 2014 and in the ongoing games, but a singles Gold continues to elude him as he won a Singles bronze in the Commonwealth Games last year as well.
It was a strong start from Ghosal who came from behind after a deficit and then turned it around to take the first game. But Yow started playing long rallies to keep Ghosal at bay. Yow was too strong in the front court and Ghosal was forced to play defense. But he could do that only to a certain extent. Yow won the second second 11-9. But after that, it was all Yow as he took the last two sets 11-5 and 11-7 to win the Men's singles Gold.
India's medal tally reached 86 with Ghosal and Antim Panghal's medals as it was a quiet day for the country in terms of podium position with most of the events getting completed. A couple of Gold medals were won in Archery on Day 12 while the mixed doubles pair of Dipika Pallikal and Harinder Singh got India their second Gold of the competition in squash.
