Sport - Squash   

Saeed Hassan enters semifinals

By S.R. Suryanarayan

CHENNAI DEC. 5. Pakistani players are not to be taken lightly. Saeed Hassan is a comparatively new comer in professional squash but having beaten Dylan Bennet of Netherlands before, repeated the feat against he fourth seed in a quarterfinal match in the PSA super satellite Chennai Open at the TNSRA courts on Friday.

Even top seed Mike Corren from Australia did not have a pleasant time on the court against another Pakistani, Khayal Muhammed in what proved a painfully slow encourter but at least he eked out a win. For gangling Bennet the experience was different. Unable to match the Pakistani's speed and swift switch of flanks, Bennet kept erring.

Before long he felt the Pakistani was also trying to cleverly obstructing his path. That started the corrosive side of the Dutch's display. The youngman looked seemingly perturbed and never wasted chances to barge into his opponent while trying to win a `let' call.

More than once he was warned for his barging tendency but that did not cool him down. Worse it was his game that kept disintegrating. The deception in his drop shot and the skillful handling of the low returns instantly had Hassan in trouble, even committing unforced errors.

But in the end it was the Pakistani who had the last laugh as he notched up his second win over his tall opponent (earlier being in the Scottish Open) and what is more, reached the semifinal for the first time. Corren too had problems, not only his resilient Khayal but with the Referee's calls. Somehow he let himself get upset and there were moments when his acts on the court did not look amusing. A senior pro in the circuit, Corren showed his ability to keep his opponent on his toes. Khayal took up the challenge in all earnestness, once even going sprawling on the court trying an acrobatic return. It was Corren's luck that the Pakistani was unable to keep his consistency of good returns high. In this midst the one man who cruised through was the Indian national champion Ritwik Bhattacharya who accounted for the German Stefan Leifels with a measure of comfort.

The results (quarterfinals): Saeed Hassan (Pak) beat Dylan Bennett (Neth) 15-10, 15-6, 7-15, 17-16; Ritwik Bhattacharya (Ind) beat Stefan Leifels (Ger) 15-11, 15-11, 15-5; Mike Corren (Aus) beat Khayal Muhammad (Pak) 15-13 15-10, 12-15, 15-13. Mark Heather (Eng) beat Ashley Flathers (Eng) 13-15, 15-8, 15-9, 15-11.

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