Sport - Squash   

Ritwik moves up

By S.R. Suryanarayan

India's Ritwik Bhattacharya (right) in action against Egypt's Sherif Kamel in the Chennai Open squash tournament on Thursday. Ritwik won in straight games.

CHENNAI DEC. 4. Freshly-crowned national champion Ritwik Bhattacharya kept his reputation as an experienced professional intact with a methodical finish of Egyptian Sherif Kamel and take a quarterfinal place in the PSA super satellite Chennai Open 2003 tournament at the TNSRA courts on Thursday.

It was a draw of 16, Ritwik was the only Indian to finish on the winning side. Known for his power game and delicate touches, he exhibited both while settling down fast and wearing out Kamel, who is known for his resilience but could only briefly show that. Fitness is the key in a sport of such rigour and the Indian, by now tuned to such requirements also had enough tricks up his sleeve to dictate the flow of the match.

Showing good wrist work whereby he put away winners with ease, Ritwik raced away initially. But a sudden trough came in the third game when, leading 11-2, he found Kamel itching for a fightback.

Rallies lengthened. There were enough `let' calls as the Egyptian slowly but surely narrowed the lead and what is more levelled scores at 14 points. Ritwik did not lose hold beyond that. For another Indian, Saurav Ghosal, the local India Cements Academy boy and easily one of the most promising juniors in the country, however inexperience proved his undoing.

Playing against Pakistan's Khayal Muhammed, the Indian, matched him in returns, even won some big points, particularly in the first game. But the Pakistani survived that, changed tactics with some neat close to the tin placements. So deceptive was he in his drop shots that Saurav often got caught on the wrong foot. Saurav lost but stretching the match to nearly an hour, the longest of the day, he kept the small audience glued to the action.

For the top two seeds, Mike Corren (Aus) and Mark Heather (Eng) it was easy going. Both finished their job in about 30 minutes to think ahead.

The results: Mike Corren (Aus) bt Vikas Jangra (Ind) 15-5, 15-7, 15-9; Khayal Muhammad (Pak) bt Saurav Ghosal (Ind) 17-15, 15-8, 15-11; Ritwik Bhattacharya (Ind) bt Sherif Kamel (Egy) 15-7, 15-9, 17-15; Saeed Hassan (Pak) bt Sandeep Jangra (Ind) 15-5, 15-3, 15-4; Dylan Bennett (Ned) bt Seif Bayoumi (Egy) 7-15, 15-8, 15-5, 15-7; Ashley Flathers (Eng) bt Supreet Singh (Ind) 15-6, 15-6, 11-15, 15-6; Mark Heather (Eng) bt Simon Pickering (Eng) 15-5, 15-4, 15-13; Stefan Leifels (Ger) bt Gaurav Nandrajog (Ind) 15-9, 15-12, 17-15.

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