Ritwik Bhattacharya wins Malaysia squash tourney
New Delhi (PTI): Top seed Ritwik Bhattacharya survived a few tense moments before beating fourth seed Pakistan's Bilal Zaman in a five-game thriller to clinch the NSC Super Satellite Squash championship in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.
Ritwik got the better of Zaman 11-6 9-11 9-11 11-9 11-9 in 45 minutes to win the USD 7,000 tournament.
"It is a really special day for me. He was playing really well and it was a tough match but I am happy to have come through," Ritwik told PTI from Kuala Lumpur.
The former national champion, who endured an 85-minute five-game semi-final yesterday, said he could have won more comfortably but for some umpiring errors.
"I was 10-9 up in the third game but a winner was not given. So got a bit unlucky there. Then the fourth and fifth games turned out to be really close. We were tied 9-9 in both the games but I pulled it off from there on," he said, recalling the winning moments.
The 29-year-old, whose career was in doldrums after a knee injury forced him out for five months earlier this year, said he was back to full fitness and was prepared to endure the longest of matches.
"It's becoming a trend for me now to play five-gamers but the good thing is that I am winning and I feel nice about my fitness level," he said.
"My game has improved as well because I don't take winning and losing all that seriously any more. I just go out there and enjoy myself. Earlier it was exactly the opposite. I put too much pressure on myself... kept watching the videos of the matches I lost and that affected me negatively," he recalled.
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