New Delhi: Top seeds Ramy Ashour, James Willstrop and India's Saurav Ghosal sailed into the pre-quarterfinals of Punj Lloyd PSA Masters squash tournament on the second day of the USD 1,65,000 event here on Tuesday.
Among other seeded players, Peter Barker and Daryl Selby, both from England, also advanced to the last-16 stage of the final PSA World series event of the year.
Newly-crowned national champion Ghosal eased past higher-ranked USA's Julian Illingworth in straight games, while top seed and world ranked 4th Egypt's Ashour defeated Malaysia's Nafizwan Adnan 9-11 11-3 11-4 11-9 in 42 minutes.
Willstrop overcame a spirited challenge from Switzerland's Nicolas Mueller and won 7-11 11-7 11-5 11-5 in 45 minutes.
Ghosal survived some early challenge from Iliingworth in the first game before defeating the only American in the draw 12-10 11-4 11-2 in 42 minutes at Siri Fort Sports Complex.
Unseeded Ghosal, world ranked 29th, will next meet fifth seed England's Peter Barker in the pre-quarters at an all glass court on Thursday.
Barker, world ranked seventh, made short work of Olli Tuominen of Finland 11-5 11-4 11-1 in 25 minutes in the other first round match of the day.
In the match between Ghosal and Illingworth, world ranked 28th, the Indian was stretched to the maximum in the first game, lasting around 17 minutes.
It was a close first game with fortunes fluctuating from one end to the other but Ghosal kept his calm and waited for mistakes from his opponent, which Iliingworth committed towards the end moments.
Ghosal, the lone surviving Indian in the event, raised his game to an all together different level in the second game and raced away to 6-2 and then 10-4 lead to make the scoreline read 2-0 in his favour.
Ghosal gave his fancied opponent, against whom he had lost 1-3 in the World Team Championship in August in Germany, a torrid time in the third game as the Indian showed great athleticism and used his famed footwork to perfection to leave Illingworth both mentally and physically drained.
"I lost to him in the World championship in Germany, I am happy that I won against him today. I was putting him under a lot of pressure by playing my shots to perfection. In the second and third game, my start was very strong and that put him under a lot of stress," said Ghosal after the match.
Talking about his match against Barker, the 26-year-old Ghosal said, "Last time when we played I lost 1-3. I hope to turn the tables on him this time. He is an extremely solid player; he is in his prime form. I am definitely looking for a win against him in front of the home crowd," added Ghosal.
Illingworth said he was not mentally prepared for the match and made too many errors both at the back and in front of the glasscourt.
"In the first game, we fought neck and neck. There were too many unforced errors on my part in the second and third game that there is no excuse for the poor showing," said Illingworth.
"I was not mentally prepared for the tie. I did not perform well mentally after losing the first game. I was a bit tired physically and was unable to hit good length. I made too many errors both back and the front of the glasscourt."
In the other matches of the day, Alister Walker of Botswana defeated Alan Clyne of Scotland 3-0 (11-5, 11-6, 11-5).
Simon Rosner of Germany beat Egyptian Omar Abdel Aziz 3-0 (11-7, 11-6, 11-4) in 34 minutes. Seventh seed Daryl Selby of England out-played Mohammed Abbas of Egypt 3-0 (11-4, 11-7, 11-9) in 33 minutes.
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