Ritwik goes down to Corren

India's top player Ritwik Bhattacharya went down fighting to top seed Mike Corren of Australia in the semi-finals of the India Cements Chennai Open 2003 PSA Squash Championship on Saturday night.

Bhattacharya, ranked 83rd in the world, turned in a superb display but went down 9-15, 9-15, 15-11, 14-15 to the highly-rated Corren.

Corren will play second seed Mark Heather of England in the tomorrow's final.

Heather had an easy victory over Saeed Hassan of Pakistan, winning 15-10, 15-10, 15-9 in 34 minutes.

In the Natalia Grand National Finals 2003, held concurrently, Saurav Ghosal (Tamil Nadu) and Delhi's Gaurav Nandrajog will clash in the boys' under-19 title match, while Maharashtra's top seed Sandeep Jangra plays A Parthibhan (TN) in the boys' under-17 final.

Shibani Philip (TN) and Dipika Pallikal (TN) and Ankita Sharma (Maha) and Shruti Dugar (TN) will fight for the titles in the girls' under-15 and under-11 respectively.

In the PSA semi-finals, Corren set the tone to dominate the first two games, but Bhattacharya worked his way through and showed consistency with his returns and was equally adept at

snatching the ball out of the air very early or delaying his shots. On many a time he had the Aussie scrambling the wrong way.

Bhattacharya trailed 2-6 in the third game but was gritty in levelling the score 6-6 and then 10-all before clinching the game.

Though Corren was quick and powerful, he battled in usual Aussie tradition of body-play on court. He even lost his cool and argued with the referee several times.

Tactically, Corren played an excellent game, living up to his billing as the top seed. He played deep and did his best to prevent Bhattacharya from attacking the ball in the forecourt, throwing up lobs, moving the Indian around and not letting his rival settle into a pattern.

The fourth game went neck and neck. Bhattacharya had the game in his hands with a superb winner to serve for the game at 14-13. After a few rallies, Bhattacharya hit the tin to surrender the initiative but grabbed back the chance. At 14-14, the Indian, not wanting to drift the game to extra points, committed an unforced error and handed the match to the to the Aussie in 64 minutes.