The Hindu : Sport / Squash : Chance for juniors to prove their mettle

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 19, 2004

Sport

Sport - Squash

Chance for juniors to prove their mettle

CHENNAI, JULY 18. The second Chennai— ICL Open, a $6,000 super satellite squash men's event, to be held at the TNSRA courts here from July 19 to 24, could not have come at a more opportune time for the Indian junior team eager for competition exposure before the World junior championship scheduled in Pakistan next month.

Briefing newsmen on Saturday, N. Ramachandran, Secretary-General, Squash Rackets Federation of India, said that National champion Ritwik Bhattacharya, a seasoned campaigner in the PSA circuit, and three more Indians who were in the professional circuit since last year — Saurav Ghosal, Gaurav Nandrajog and Supreet Singh - will be taking part. In addition to these players who figure in the main draw of 16, nine other Indians would get an opportunity for the four slots available from the qualifying draw.

Ritwik, with a standing of 67, is the third highest ranked player in the draw. The two ahead of him are Jean Michel Arcucci (France) 53 and Mohammad Essam Hafiz (Qatar) 56. Other foreigners in the main draw are Amr Mansi, Sherif Kamel, Mohammed Ismail, Ahmed Hamza, Mohamed Elkeiy (all Egypt) and Paul David Johnson (Wales).

Mr. Ramachandran said prior to the final on July 24, SRFI will felicitate Ghosal, winner of British Junior Open 2004, Joshna Chinappa, runner-up at British Junior Open 2004 and gold medallist at the Islamabad SAF Games as also the Indian men's team (Ritwik, Ghosal, Siddarth Suchde and Manish Chotrani) which finished third in the recent Asian championship.

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