Sport - Squash   

Ritwik Bhattacharya regains title

By Our Sports Reporter

Joshna Chinappa (left) and Ritwik Bhattacharya, who won the women's and men's titles respectively in the senior National squash championship in Kolkata on Sunday.

KOLKATA NOV. 30. Top seeded Ritwik Bhattacharya of Delhi regained the senior National squash title in style blowing away the challenge from his Tamil Nadu opponent and second seeded Saurav Ghosal in the final at the Calcutta Racket Club on Sunday.

On the distaff side, the top seeded player Joshna Chinappa of Tamil Nadu beat Statemate Sonali Philip in straight games to lift her third National title. Chinappa had earlier won the junior (under-19) title and with her latest victory she regained the senior National crown which she had lost to Mekhla Subedar of Maharashtra last year.

Chinappa, who shot into fame winning the British Open title this year, completely overshadowed Sonali, who could hardly match up to the accuracy of the former. With only nine names listed for the women's competition, the organiser was forced to go for the circuit format, which had the losers of earlier round playing against each other to decided the lower positions. Surbhi Mishra beat local challenger Neha Rathi for the third position.

The men's final, which was definitely the feature event of the evening, ultimately came out to be a one-sided contest as Bhattacharya assumed ruthless form to completely outplay the reigning junior champion, Ghosal. Bhattacharya's performance laced power with accuracy that often found his young opponent running out of options. Ghosal, who is also ranked third among the seniors in the country, had raised hopes of a fight with a good showing against Bhattacharya in the inter-state team finals.

But the former champion, who seemed to have sharpened up his skills over the week, hardly gave any chance to his younger opponent on Sunday and wrapped up the match conceding just six points in the straight game win.

Bhattacharya, who became the first Indian to win consecutive Professional Squash Association satellite titles at New Zealand earlier this year, said he would be getting over to the professional assignments and would take part in the super-satellite event to held in Chennai in the ensuing week.

The results (finals): Men: 1-Ritwik Bhattacharya (Del) bt 2-Saurav Ghosal (TN) 9-2, 9-1, 9-3.

Women: 1-Joshna Chinappa (TN) bt 2-Sonali Philip (TN) 9-5, 9-2, 9-2. Third position play-off: Surbhi Mishra (Raj) bt Neha Rathi (Ben) 9-0, 9-0, 9-0.

Professionals: Mahesh Verma (Mah) bt Bala Murugan (TN) 6-9, 1-9, 9-6, 10-8, 9-4.

Men's Masters: 35-39 yrs: Rohit Thawani (Mah) bt Mukhtiar Ali (Del) 9-4, 9-5, 9-0. 40-44 yrs: O'Niel Pramanik (Ben) bt Deepak Moolani (Mah) 9-2, 9-3, 9-3. 45-49 yrs: Vaman Apte (Mah) bt V. Laxman (TN) 9-1, 8-10, 9-6, 9-6. Over-50: Kishan Lal (Mah) bt Sunil Patel (MP) 9-1, 9-2, 9-1.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

Cricket

• Laxman's knock, the saving grace for India
• Gambhir in full flow
• Bruce Reid is India's bowling coach
• Karnataka retains title; Varun scalps eight
• Ranji Trophy fourth round from today
  
  Tennis
  
• Double for Tushar Liberhan
• Poonacha posts win
  
  Hockey
  
• Five Indians nominated for FIH awards
  
  Athletics
  
• Mahesh, Pasholleima claim titles
  
  Badminton
  
• Krishna Deka Raja, Anand reign supreme
  
  Squash
  
• Ritwik Bhattacharya regains title
  
  Swimming
  
• Sushanth, Bhuvaneshwari clinch titles
  
  Table Tennis
  
• BPCL records win
• Karthik shows Amarnath the exit
  
  Volleyball
  
• Railways women show their class
  
  

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu