Dipika Pallikal

Chennai (PTI): Top seed Saurav Ghosal did short work of his Indian compatriot Ritwik Bhattacharya 7-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-6 to win the ICL Chennai Open Squash Championship here on Sunday.

Saurav was tentative in the beginning before he found his grooves to come back from one game down and pocket the match in 40 minutes.

In the women's section, fifth seeded Indian Dipika Pallikal's dream run in the tournament was halted at the last hurdle as she lost to fourth seed Annie Au of Hong Kong 3-9, 8-10, 8-10 in 44 minutes.

Second seed Ritwik was in his elements in the first game as he led 3-0 and later 7-3 over his top seeded opponent before taking the game 11-7.

From the second game onwards, however, Saurav shifted gears and his gameplan to keep the ball in play and slowing down the pace to go for his measured shots, particularly the forehand drives, did the trick.

Saurav levelled the score by winning the second game 11-7 but in the third game the two were 4-all. Here, Saurav adopted front court play and relied on rhythm to take the score to 9-5 including a 'stroke' point award in his favour before winning it 11-7.

In the fourth game, Saurav did not give any leeway for Ritwik to come back into the match after a 7-3 lead. Ritwik also seemed to be distracted by some of the referee's decisions.