Deccan Chronicle

The stage is set for yet another Saurav Ghosal / Ritwik Bhattacharya final, as the country’s two best players will battle it out for honours at the PSA Indian Challenger to be held at the ICL Academy courts on Saturday. The last time the duo — best buddies off the court — met was at the same venue where Saurav beat Ritwik 3-1 for the 2008 Chennai Open title.
Saurav, ranked 39 in the world, is in great touch at the moment, while Ritwik is steadily recapturing his best form after his ranking suffered last year as a result of a shoulder injury.

The semifinal was a breeze for the top duo on Friday. Saurav dismantled Briton Chris Simpson 11-9, 11-6, 11-6 in 40 minutes and Ritwik ended the fairytale run of promising youngster Harinder Pal Singh 11-8, 11-5, 11-7 in just over half an hour.

Saurav dictated terms from the start. The Indian’s backhand was deceptive and it often caught Simpson flatfooted. The opening game was not high on excitement with the players opting for a safe approach and long rallies marked it. Saurav had a 6-2 lead, but Simpson made it 8-8 with some brilliant straight drives. Saurav, however, went ahead 11-9 after the Englishman’s two attempted nicks came right back towards him, resulting in ‘stroke’ points.

The Indian No. 1 was hardly tested in the next two games. He raced to a 8-4 on his way to winning the game and the script was similar in the third. Saurav’s strokeplay was a treat when he was on song. His backhand drop proved to be his most potent tool. The drops were bang on target. They invariably hit the front wall and kissed the sidewall before dropping down.

Ritwik taught Harinder a valuable squash lesson in the other semifinal. The first game — the only phase where Harinder matched Ritwik — was a marathon. Harinder was quick on his feet and used all his stamina, but it was not enough to stop his experienced opponent, who put up a superb display of attacking squash. Ritwik mixed his game with well-angled nicks. His variation in shot selection helped him catch his younger opponent off-guard time and again.
 

06-Nov, Quarter-Finals:
Three Indians in Chennai semis

Displaying scant regard for seedings and reputations, Harinder Sandhu swatted his way into the semifinal of the ongoing Indian Challenger-PSA tournament here with another upset win over fourth seed Dick Lau. Harinder had accounted for seventh seed Malaysian Muhd Asyraf in the first round on Wednesday.

Agile and nifty, the nineteen-year-old needed just 26 minutes to dismantle Lau's game with a surprisingly accurate implementation of textbook squash. He began by running up comfortable leads in each of the three games and homed in on the vacant areas behind his opponent, perfectly illustrating the advice that wised-up coaches are known to propagate to their wards.

With two games in the red, Lau changed his strategy in the third by going for broke. The result, unfortunately for the Hong Kong player, was a spate of errors at a time he could ill afford to lose a single point. As a consequence, Harinder romped from 5-2 to 11-2 within a few minutes for an emphatic victory.

Harinder set up a semifinal match against second-seed Ritwik Bhattacharya who was all business in a matter-of-fact win against Austrian floater Aqeel Rehman.

Continuing India's decent show, top seed Saurav Ghosal outwitted fifth seed Max Lee in straight games. Saurav used the sidewalls to disorient his opponent and, in a recreation of his preferred tactics, upped his game in the latter half of every game. The first game went point-for-point for each player and could have swung either way at 8-8.

A couple of points and two long rallies later Saurav whipped one just above the tin and the ball died before Lee's outstretched racquet could make contact to give the Indian his first game ball. Lee saved one, but was foxed into an error on the second to lose the game. From there on, it was only a matter of formality for Saurav as he closed out the match in straight games.

The lone sore spot for India was Siddharth Suchde's loss in four games to England's Chris Simpson. Suchde managed to pull one back after losing the first two games, but ultimately went down to a player who was undeniably superior to him in all aspects. Simpson will take on Saurav in the other semifinal on Friday.