Saurav Ghosal created history on Wednesday as he won India’s first-ever singles medal in squash at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Displaying excellent form in the men’s singles bronze medal match, Ghosal humbled former world No. 1 James Willstrop of England 11-6, 11-1, 11-4.

Ghosal, 35, took the first game quite comfortably against home favourite Willstrop and extended his domination by winning the second game by a bigger margin to place himself within striking distance of scripting history. The third game was also won without much difficulty. “I’m very very happy, it’s a big day for Indian squash. To be able to do this against a player of this calibre is very special. I’m happy that after all these years I have been able to win this,” Ghosal said.

Silver for shuttlers

On Tuesday, in badminton, Kidambi Srikanth came up with an underwhelming performance as India succumbed 1-3 to Malaysia and settled for a silver in the mixed team event. Srikanth lost to lower-ranked Tze Yong Ng 21-19, 6-21, 21-16 to put the defending champions on the backfoot. PV Sindhu did what was expected out of her in the women’s singles while the men’s doubles pairing of Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty went down in the opening doubles.

With the win, Malaysia regained the title they had lost to India four years ago in Gold Coast. For India to retain gold, a lot depended on the outcome of the men’s doubles tie featuring Rankireddy and Shetty and the Olympic bronze medallists duo of Teng Fong Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh.

The women’s doubles and mixed doubles were India’s weaker links and the team relied on men’s doubles and the two singles to get the job done. The opening contest was full of long and winding rallies but Reddy and Shetty lost majority of them, failing to keep pace with the attacking Malaysian pair. For a change, the Malaysian crowd made more noise than the Indians, providing a further push to Chia and Soh.

After a tough battle, the Malaysians won 21-18, 21-15 to put their team 1-0 up. In the women’s singles, two-time Olympic medallist was expected to win comfortably but the 60th-ranked Goh Jin Wei made life very tough for the world No. 7. Sindhu eventually won 22,20, 21-17. Sindhu led 11-6 in the first game but Goh looked a different player after the interval. She made the former world champion run around the court with her skillful net play