Punj Lloyd PSA Masters: Indians disappoint

It turned out to be a disappointing outing for Indian players in the Punj Lloyd PSA Masters 2010 as all lost their opening round matches and bowed out of the squash event at the Siri Fort Sports Complex, in Delhi, on Tuesday.

Much was expected of wild card entrant Harinder Pal Sandhu, qualifiers Sandeep Jangra and Siddharth Suchde but the trio failed to impress in a star-studded field, led by newly-crowned World champion Nick Matthew and James Willstrop of England and living legend Amr Shabana of Egypt.

16th seed and the country's top-ranked player Saurav Ghosal is now left with the daunting task of carrying the tri-colour in the US $1,92,500 event, the tenth and final event of the 2010 PSA Super Series.

Ghosal will play English qualifier Adrian Weller on Wednesday in the opening round of the other half of the main draw on centre court, but his chances of advancing further into the championship looks extremely difficult as he could face third seed and world ranked sixth Shabana in the pre-quarter-finals.

All other top seed men's players including second seed James Willstrop, sixth seed Egypt's Wael El Hindi, 10th seed Australian Cameron Pilley and seventh seed The Netherlands's Laurens Jan Anjema advanced to the pre-quarters of the five-day-long event, winning their respective matches.