By IANS
Kolkata : Top seeded Azlan Iskandar of Malaysia crashed out in the opening round of the Kolkata International Squash here Tuesday.
Iskandar, ranked 16 in the world, lost 3-1 against unseeded Shahid Zaman of Pakistan, who is trying to make a comeback after a year in the wilderness owing to injury. Second seeded Ong Beng Hee (Malaysia) had no problems in beating unseeded Amir Mansi of Egypt without having to exert much.
The news was equally bad for the home players, with the greater part of the Indian challenge evaporating with three of the four players in the main draw bowing out rather unceremoniously.
The former national champion and the owner of most number of PSA titles from the country, Ritwick Bhattacharya, crashed out cheaply in straight games against third seeded Aamir Atlas Khan of Pakistan. His less ranked compatriots – Gaurav Nandrajog and Siddharth Suchde – also made hopeless exits.
The Indian hopes were hung on the reigning national champion Saurav Ghosal, who beat qualifier Mohammad El Shorbagy of Egypt 3-1 in a well-contested encounter.
Ghosal, playing his first tournament, was a little rusty initially and lost the first game making some unforced errors. He took up from the second game, which he won easily and showed lot of character snatching the third game from Shorbagy, who was on game point 10-9.
The fourth game was a matter formality for Ghosal who has already moved into the quarterfinals and would be meeting third seeded Omar Mosaad of Egypt, who beat India’s Nandrajog.
Ritwick Bhattacharya, who hoped to make the most of playing at home, struggled to reach his best against a much fitter opponent in Aamir Atlas Khan. His young Pakistan opponent had a better court coverage and that put the former on the back-foot.
The Indian played well in patches bringing out some brilliant strokes that raised hopes of a close match. But Bhattacharya kept losing points in succession giving Khan a sizeable lead in every game.
“He was pretty fast and some close calls went the other way,” said Bhattacharya, who often got involved in arguments with the referee and was also given a conduct warning when played
The results (prefix denote seeding):
Pre-quarterfinals: Shahid Zaman (Pak) bt 1-Mohd Azlan Iskandar (Mas) 11-3, 11-9, 3-11, 11-6; Mansoor Zaman (Pak) bt Jethro Binns (Wal)
11-10(2-0), 11-9, 10-11(3-5), 11-8; 3-Omar Mosad (Egy) bt Gaurav Nandrajog (Ind) 11-8, 11-7, 11-9; Saurav Ghoshal (Ind) bt Mohammad El
Shorbagy (Egy) 10-11(0-2), 11-6, 11-10(2-0), 11-7; Omar Abdel Aziz (Egy) bt Rob Sutherland (Wal) 11-7, 11-7, 7-11, 11-5; 4-Aamir Atlas
Khan (Pak) bt Ritwick Bhattacharya (Ind) 11-8, 11-7, 11-6; Farhan Mehboob (Pak) bt Siddharth Suchde (Ind)11-4, 11-5, 11-6; 2-Ong Beng
Hee (Mas) bt Amir Mansi (Egy) 11-7, 11-8, 11-2.