Chennai, June 2 (IANS) Saurav Ghosal Wednesday became the highest ranked Indian squash player in the world rankings (PSA or WISPA) at 26, surpassing former women's national champion Misha Grewal who achieved her best ranking of 27 in 1995.
In the June Professional Squash Association (PSA) rankings released Wednesday, Ghosal finds himself at 26, moving up two places since last month after turning professional in 2003.
Last month, Ghosal defeated Malaysia’s Mohd. Azlan Iskandar twice in succession at the Asian Championships and in the first round of the Sky Open in Cairo, a $150,000 PSA event.
Also achieving her personal best is Joshna Chinappa at 28 in the Women's International Squash Players Association (WISPA) June rankings. Joshna last week won the German Ladies Open, a $9,000 WISPA event in Saarbrucken.
Last month was successful for the Indian team too. At the Asian Championships held in Chennai, the Indian women’s team won the silver medal and the men took the bronze medal.
In the individual events, Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal won a bronze medal each.
Srivatsan Subramaniam, Secretary General SRFI, said: "I am delighted with this news. Saurav has grown up here at the Indian Squash Academy and today is the highest ranked Indian ever.
"I give credit to his family, coaches and all the support received from the Tamil Nadu government, Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu, ministry of youth affairs and sports and the International Sports Division which is assisting in supporting the playings training for the Commonwealth Games later this year.
"It is also heartening to see that today there are eight Indians ranked in the top 100 in the world rankings."
The top ranked Indians are:
PSA: Saurav Ghosal - 26; Siddharth Suchde - 81; Harinder Pal Sandhu - 94; Ritwik Bhattacharya - 139; Gaurav Nandrajog - 175; Naresh Kumar - 184; Ravi Dixit - 207; Ramit Tandon - 218; Abhishek Pradhan - 315; Sandeep Jangra - 342; Karan Malik - 354; Aditya Jagtap - 417; Vikas Jangra - 417.
WISPA: Joshna Chinppa - 28; Dipika Pallikal - 40; Anaka Alankamony - 59; Aparajitha Balamurugan - 80; Anwesha Reddy - 88; Surbhi Misra - 104; Ankita Sharma - 169.