As the 22nd edition of the World Men’s Team Squash Championship event comes to a close, the rankings of the teams are now being determined.
India, one of the heavily favored team to fare well in the competition, suffered tough losses in the earlier rounds of the tournament but slowly regained momentum to clinch the 17th place in this 28-team event.
To take the post, India has to beat host country Denmark and the team delivered the right squash balls this time, thanks to the heroic efforts of Gauray Nandrajog who won the deciding match in straights sets.
The first match between Denmark and India was between Rusmus Nielsen, Denmark’s top player and Ritwik Bhattacharya. Nielsen seemed to be headed for victory after winning the first two sets before the Indian came back to take the next three. The final score 4-11, 10-12, 11-9, 11-9, 11-8. The match lasted 52 minutes.
The second match went to the Danish team after Harinderpal Singh failed to capitalize on his opportunities but rather made a lot of errors against Kristian Frost. The match lasted 45 minutes and the score was 12-10, 11-9, 11-2, a straight sets victory for the Danish player.
The decider was simply an exciting affair but squash training proved worthy for Nandrajog, who revealed that he went through tough training prior to the tournament. The Indian capped off the match in 30 minutes after securing the victory in straight sets against Kim Povlsen 12-10, 11-3, 11-6.