By IANS,
Chennai : It will be an all-Indian final at the ICL Chennai Open squash tournament as national champion and top seed Saurav Ghosal and Ritwik Bhattacharya won their semi-final matches here Saturday.
Saurav survived some anxious moments in the PSA (Professional Squash Association) event semi-final as he came back from 0-2 to pull off a 3-2 win against third seed Ryan Cuskelly of Australia.
Saurav will take on Ritwik Sunday who too recovered from a 0-2 deficit to post a 3-2 win over Egyptian Mohd Ali Anwar Reda.
Cuskelly had Saurav worried in the first two games as he kept pace and picked whatever the Indian threw at him.
Down 0-2, Saurav had to work very hard and clawed back to level the match at 2-2. The 84-minute-duel saw Saurav prevail in the end with a gutsy effort from both players.
Reda, seeking to retain his last year’s title, looked like going through easily when leading 2-0. But Ritwik came back strongly, playing some exceptional drops to book his place in the final after an enthralling five-set victory.
Meanwhile Chennai girl Dipika Palliakal’s dream run continued at the tournament.
Playing with confidence, fifth seeded Dipika put out third seeded Orla Noom of the Netherlands 3-1 to enter her first WISPA (Women’s International Squash Players) tour final.
In the title round Sunday, Dipika will take on No.4 Annie Au from Hong Kong who defeated second seeded Joshna Chinappa in four games.
Dipika moved higher ranked Orla to her backhand front on numerous occasions to win crucial points and take the advantage.
Although Orla leveled the match at 1-1, Dipika played an 18-minute game to win the crucial third 9-5 and won the fourth convincingly.
The results (seeding in brackets):
PSA Men’s semi-final: [1] Saurav Ghosal (IND) bt [3] Ryan Cuskelly (AUS) 10-12, 5-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-7 (82min); [2] Ritwik Bhattacharya (IND) bt [4] Mohd Ali Anwar Reda (EGY) 10-12, 7-11, 12-10, 11-7, 11-8 (73min)
WISPA Women’s semi-final: [5] Dipika Palliakal (IND) bt [3] Orla Noom (NED) 10-8, 7-9, 9-5, 9-1 (49min); [4] Annie Au (HKG) bt [2] Joshna Chinappa (IND) 10-9, 9-1, 5-9, 10-9 (67min).