The Hindu : Sport : Ritwik Bhattacharya in final

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 25, 2005

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Sport

Ritwik Bhattacharya in final

S.R. Suryanarayan

CHENNAI: Two Indians — Siddarth Suchde and Ritwik Bhattacharya — scripted a rare moment in Indian squash when they reached the final of the ICL-Chennai Open, a super-satellite event here on Friday.

While Ritwik, as second seed was expected to reach the title round, the big cheer was reserved for the unseeded Harvard student Suchde, who played some of his best squash to topple the top seed Kashif Shuja, the Pakistani-born New Zealander in five games that stretched past the hour.

The day provided two levels of competition and two sides of player behaviour.

If Suchde-Shuja match was an exhibition of a keen affair and exemplary court manners then the Ritwik-Dylan Bennett match was marred by the visiting player's repeated show of tantrums over what he perceived was poor refereeing.

Remarkable win

But first the bright side, in particular the way Suchde crawled back from two games down to carve out a remarkable win. "Full credit to him for the way he came back and tired me out,'' said Shuja after the match. If there was an example of there being a slip between the cup and lip then this match had to be it. Shuja had never looked a sharp mover but it is his wristy deception that kept him going. It did help him in the first two games when Suchde was foxed by the fastish returns.

Inexplicably Shuja briefly lost rhythm and Suchde grabbed the opportunity with both hands. Showing his touch in the forecourt, the Indian repeatedly won points with delicately volleyed drops. Shuja's slip soon became a slide as Suchde, like against Saurav Ghosal in the quarterfinal, pegged away. "Shuja momentarily lost focus and I cashed on that,'' quipped Suchde on his big win and his first final in PSA circuit.

Two powerful players, Ritwik and Dylan began blasting away shots with the soft drops an occasional variation. But where things turned tricky for the Dutch was on the `let' and `stroke' calls. Ritwik galloped to two games lead before Dylan broke one back but then came the problems. Dylan did not do his cause nor the sport's any good by his antics as Ritwik trooped out winner in four games.

The results: semifinals: Siddarth Suchde (Ind) bt Kashif Shuja (Nzl) 10-11 (3-5), 6-11; 11-3, 11-6, 11-7; Ritwik Bhattacharya (Ind) bt Dylan Bennett (Ned) 11-9, 11-5, 6-11, 11-3.

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