Last month, Saurav Ghosal became the first Indian male squash player to crack the world top 10. But around the same time last year, he had very seriously considered quitting after an early singles defeat at the Commonwealth Games.
“To lose in the second round was heartbreaking, to say the least. It was very tough. I wasn’t really sure if I was going to continue playing,” he says.
Still, the 32-year-old decided to have another go at it; it could not end this way. First, there was the introspection and the fortifying of his inner resolve. “For starters, you have to turn it around mentally and believe it’s possible,” says Ghosal. Then came the months of training; brutal, back-to-basics stuff. “The intensity went up by a lot. I had played a certain way for so long. At 31, making [certain] changes is not the easiest thing to do,” he says.
Ghosal’s progress will likely boost Indian squash, a sport that’s been gradually growing. “When I started playing juniors, we didn’t have anyone in the top 50,” he says. “The goalposts have obviously changed now.” But squash is not yet an Olympic sport. “I think it’s very disappointing. Especially when you look at what the Olympic ideals mean and what they stand for. Everyone involved feels squash ticks the boxes,” he says.
Ghosal admitted that the obscurity of squash players in India used to bother him. “I used to feel that certain athletes in other sports, who haven’t achieved as much as what we have, get more recognition,” he says. But that’s irrelevant now. His next few goals: consolidating his top 10 spot; aiming for top eight and top five. “It’s unusual to make top 10 at 32 but you want to do things that aren’t normal,” he says. “If I can make number 1 at 33 or 34, it will be [historic].”
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