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Ritwik-Ghosal enter doubles final
December 16, 2004 21:17 IST
India's Ritwik Bhattacharya and Saurav Ghosal created history by taking the country to its first World Squash Championship final.
The Indian pair stormed into the title clash defeating the American duo of Jaime Crombie and Preston Quick 3-1 in the semi-finals of the Chennai Open world doubles men's championship at the India Cements Academy Complex in Chennai on Thursday.
Bhattacharya and Ghosal dished out exciting fare to win the 65-minute encounter 9-5, 10-11, 11-9, 9-4.
Initially, the Indians looked headed for an easy win but their inadequacy in arresting the fighting Americans in the second game from a lead of 5-2 and levelling the score at 8-all cost them the game (10-11).
Both Bhattacharya and Ghosal made some fine placements and wristy shots. Bhattacharya excelled with his nick shots, while Ghosal exhibited his prowess to move in front from back court to score points on drive-ins.
In fact in the third game, Bhattacharya was serving for the game at (8-7) but the rivals went on to play one of the longest rallies witnessed in the match. To everyone's chagrin, Ghosal muffed an easy return from the back court to help the Americans not only to save a game point but allowed them to level the game score too.
The Americans seemed to be raising their game and Crombie, who was found to be wanting in the first two games, came up with few superb winners, but they went down 9-11.
The Indian pair had an easy time in the fourth game as they won it 9-4 to wrap up the match.