Third Time Lucky For Bhattacharya In Chennai

After losing to his national rival in two previous PSA Tour event finals on home soil in India, Ritwik Bhattacharya bravely fought back from two-games-to-one down to beat top seed Saurav Ghosal to make it third time lucky in the climax of the inaugural Indian Challenger No1 at the ICL Squash Academy in Chennai.

Bhattacharya has hit a rich vein of form recently - only two weeks ago reaching the semi-finals of the African Open in Nigeria after recording one his best wins of the year in the quarter-finals.

The second seed from Mumbai reached the final of the $18,000 PSA Tour event in Chennai after fending off unseeded fellow countryman Harinder Pal Sandhu in the semi-finals - 19-year-old Sandhu having made it through to the last four after two sensational upsets over seeded opponents.

Confident Ghosal seemed untroubled as he reached the final without dropping a game - and looked set to repeat his victories over Bhattacharya in the Otters Open final in Mumbai in July 2006 and the Chennai Open final three months ago.

But it was Bhattacharya's day as the 29-year-old world No57 beat Ghosal, the world No39 from Chennai, 11-9, 5-11, 4-11, 11-8, 12-10 in 65 minutes to record the eighth title of his career.

Final:
[2] Ritwik Bhattacharya (IND) bt [1] Saurav Ghosal (IND) 11-9, 5-11, 4-11, 11-8, 12-10 (65m)