Summary Karim Abdel Gawad retired with a damaged calf half way through the third game.
DOHA: Saurav Ghosal reckoned there were signs of the Indian giant stirring after he reached the third round of the world championships for the first time on Sunday.
The finest Indian male player of the professional era did that by getting past the seed-defeating young Egyptian Karim Abdel Gawad, who retired with a damaged calf half way through the third game.
Ghosal s win, concluded at 11-4, 11-8, 6-1, ensured him a place in the world s top 20 and coincides with other Indian successes, notably Dipika Pallikal becoming the first Indian woman in the world s top ten.
With Joshna Chinappa recently doing well in Hong Kong, Siddharth Suchde climbing the world s top 50, and India capturing a bronze medal at the world junior team championships, the world s second most populous nation has potential to cause a squash transformation.
"It could be very great," enthused Ghosal. "If we can get a couple each (men and women) into the world s top ten that would be excellent.
"With the finance India could have it could be lucrative for both the PSA (men s) and WSA (women s) tours. However even if the game has the best possible product you still have to go out there and sell it."
Even at the age of 26 it is clear that the man from Kolkata in West Bengal has for some time had the capacity to be one of those reaching the top ten.
The intelligence and ball control he displayed in moving the ailing Gawad again suggested that.
Ghosal steadily built a five-point lead, and after taking the first game, kept his head while Gawad made one brief push, a recovery from 4-8 to 8-9 in the second game.
When that ended it was evident that the match was effectively over too - an inappropriate exit for the 21-year-old Egyptian who had shown himself talented enough to become a leading player before long.
Ghosal s reward is a probable last 16 meeting with James Willstrop, the world number one from England, and one of his regular sparring partners.
That is because Ghosal has based in Yorkshire for much the last eight years, seeking advice from Malcolm Willstrop, Britain s most successful coach and James Willstrop s father.
"Saurav is certainly top ten standard," Willstrop senior opined.
"But he has held leading players in such high esteem that this may have prevented him from beating them. But because he knows James so well he won t be overawed by him."
Later Peter Barker, a team mate of Willstrop in England s 2007 world title winning squad, had to battle hard to reach the last 16 with a 2-11, 11-6, 13-11, 11-4 win over Mathieu Castagnet, the world number 36 from France
Barker, who damaged a hamstring last week in Hong Kong Open, was twice within a point of going two games to one down in a fraught phase in which the French coterie was warned by referee Nasser Zahran for coaching during the match.
