National Champion Saurav Ghosal and Ritwik Bhattacharya advanced to the final of the inaugural India Cements Indian Challenger Series Championship with emphatic wins over their respective opponents.
With three Indians in the fray in the semi-final clashes on Friday, top seeded Ghosal, ranked 39 in the world, was in his elements playing a risk free game to down third seeded Chris Simpson of England 11-9, 11-6, 11-6 while Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu lost to his more experienced rival, Bhattacharya, 11-8, 11-5, 11-7.
Ghosal outclassed his English rival with alacrity, particularly playing deceptive returns and excelling in with his back hand drives through out the match, which lasted for just 40 minutes. The first game was noteworthy for long rallies and the rivals were not willing to take any risk.
Ghosal had to bring in his best initially in the match but led 5-1 and 6-2 in the first game before Simpson, who was patchy managed to level at 8-all. Here, Simpson was hauled up by the referee for indulging in intentional fouls and Ghosal was able to gain two 'stroke points' to lead 10-9 and then served for the game.
After taking the second game with much more ease with a lead of 6-3, the third game witnessed a fightback by Simpson but the 64th ranked Englishman was under pressure and was error prone and lost the game and the match.
In the other semi finals, Bhattacharya cashed in on the over aggression displayed by Sandhu. Though the first game was a marathon one with rivals matching each other for points, Sandhu failed to replicate his strong points displayed in the earlier two matches in the tournament.
On the other hand, Bhattacharya did not exert much in the last two games as he brought in his experience to play for progressing to the final.
