Bhattacharya keeps Indian hopes alive

Ritwik Bhattacharya kept Indian hopes alive even as five of his compatriots fell by the wayside in the first Chennai 2003 PSA Open Squash Championship on Thursday.

The third seeded Bhattacharya took 45 minutes to put paid to the aspirations of Sherif Kamel of Egypt before making the quarter-finals, where he will play Germany's Stefan Leifels.

Bhattacharya won 15-7, 15-9, 17-15 while Leifels disposed off Gaurav Nandrajog 15-9, 15-12, 17-15.

Like his brother Vikas Jangra, who was overwhelmed by top seed Mike corren of Australia 15-5, 15-7, 15-9 in just 28 minutes, Sandeep Jangra made his exit in just 18 minutes, losing 15-5, 15-3, 15-4 to Pakistan's Saeed Hassan.

Both unseeded Saurav Ghosal and qualifer Supreet Singh fought well before going down to their respective opponents.

Ghosal lost to Kayal Muhammad (Pak) 17-15, 15-8, 15-8, while Supreet took a game off Ashley Flathers of England before losing at 6-15, 6-15, 15-11, 6-15.

Playing on centre court, Ghosal made Kayal Muhammad sweat it out in the first two games. Though he was trailing by a wide margin, Ghosal needed just a few openings to narrow down the lead.

In the first game, Muhammad ran up a 9-3 lead but Ghosal caught up and levelled at 14-all before losing it over extra points. It was the same story in the second game too as the players battled neck-to-neck till 8-all.