Squash stars Saurav Ghosal and Joshna Chinappa sign with Baseline Ventures
1 July 2019: Baseline Ventures today announced the signing of two of India’s biggest squash stars as Joshna Chinappa and Saurav Ghosal joined the roster of athletes managed by the company. Both the athletes have been flag bearers for the country in squash and grabbed headlines recently when they won the men’s and women’s title at the Asian Championships in May earlier this year.
Kolkata’s Saurav Ghosal has been a consistent performer for more than a decade and had recently reached his career-best ranking of World number 10 in April this year, becoming the first Indian to break into the top 10 in the process. The 32-year-old had a prodigious start to his career and had become the first Indian to achieve number one ranking at Junior level in the sport. He was also the first Indian to bag a medal in the sport when he secured a bronze medal at Doha in the 2006 Asian Games.
Joshna Chinappa has been one of India’s finest squash players who has been bringing the country medals for the last 15 years. In 2014, she paired with Dipika Pallikal to win India’s first Commonwealth Games Gold medal in Glasgow, a feat she almost repeated in 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast eventually bagging a Silver. 2016 saw her break into the top 10 of squash world rankings. She enjoyed a successful campaign in the Jakarta Palembang Asian Games where she won the Bronze in the Singles event and a Silver in the Team event. In June, she broke the record of Bhuvneshwari Kumari by lifting the National squash title for a record 17th time.
Chinappa expressed her delight on the development, saying, “I’m thrilled to sign with Baseline Ventures and am looking forward to a fruitful association with the company. I have a busy 2019 ahead and I hope to make it count by putting my best foot forward. Ghosal also expressed similar emotions when he said, “It’s been a good year for me personally. After achieving my career-best ranking, I’m really excited to have signed with Baseline Ventures.”
Vishal Jaison, Co-founder of Baseline Ventures, sounded extremely excited about the signings. He was quoted as saying, “Saurav and Joshna are proven performers in their sport and arguably the best squash talent this country has produced. It’s an absolute pleasure to have them with us. Their name only makes the roster of athletes Baseline Ventures exclusively manages more impressive.”
The company that was founded in 2014 is one of the leaders in sports, events, entertainment and licensing in India. They represent and manage some of the biggest names in Indian sports including PV Sindhu, Pankaj Advani, Prithvi Shaw, Smriti Mandhana and Ravindra Jadeja among others. Earlier this year, they had also signed shooters Apurva Chandela and Saurabh Chaudhary apart from table tennis star Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and swimmer Sajan Prakash.