Ritwik Bhattacharya survived some anxious moments before advancing to the semi-finals with a hard-fought win over qualifier Mohd. Sayed Mahmoud Aly of Egypt at the fifth ICL Chennai Open PSA Squash tournament on Thursday.
Ritwik won 13-10, 11-7, 7-11, 13-10 in 41 minutes with two of the games going into extra points.
In the semi-final, he will take on lowly-ranked Omar Tarek Mahm Aly of Egypt.
In the quarter-finals today, Ritwik had a hard time against qualifier Mahmoud Aly before managing to win 3-1.
The first and the fourth games were keenly fought in the duel between the hard hitting Egyptian and artistic Ritwik.
The Indian star managed to win the first at 13-10 and then increased his lead to 2-0. But, the Egyptian fought back winning the third 11-7 and stretched the fourth to extra points. Ritwik finally won the game and the match.
Amongst the three other Indians, who were on view in the last eight stages of the tournament, Harinder Pal Singh once again clawed his way back from a 1-2 deficit to clinch a semi-final berth.
Harinder, who is ranked 169 in PSA, scored over his compatriot Naresh Kumar (174) 13-10, 15-17, 7-11, 11-6, 11-1 in 79 minutes. Harinder will now play second seeded, Mohd Ali Anwar Reda (Egypt) ranked 61 in the world.
Reda had an easy time against Parthibhan Ayappan in the quarter-final as he won 11-6, 11-5, 11-5 in 28 minutes.
In the last of the quarter-finals, Omar Tarek Mahm Aly (249) upset the third seeded Dick Lau of Hong Kong in a four-game encounter. Aly won 9-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-4 in 41 minutes.
