Ritwik, Saurav head Indian challenge, Pak star top seed

Chennai, June 14 (UNI) Defending champion Ritwik Bhattacharya and fourth seed Saurav Ghosal will be spearheading the Indian challenge in the 10000 dollar fourth ICL Chennai Open squash championships at the India Cements academy courts, the main draw of which will be held from tomorrow to June 18.

Addressing a press conference here, Squash Rackets Federation of India Secretary General N Ramachandran and tournament director Maj(retd) Manian said, the star foreign attraction would be the top seed Pakistani Khayal Muhammad. It could be another Indo-Pak contest and a revenge match in the final, with Ritwik looking to avenge his PSA tournament defeat at the hands of Kahyal in Kolkata last year.

The 21 year-old Dutch no 3 and the third seed here Dylan Bennet is also a title contender.

The other players in the main draw include Tom Richards (Eng-ranked 82), Wai Hang Wong(Hong Kong-ranked 83), Tiorth Arnold (Malaysia-ranked 109), Rob Sutherland (Walesranked 118), Marton Szaboky (Hungary-ranked 129) and another upcoming Indian Parthiban Ayappan(J)-ranked 199.

Mr Ramachandran said eight professionals and eight local players were vying for a place in the main draw from the qualifying rounds.

They include Harinderpal Singh, Shakti Singh, B Balamurugan, Ramit Tandon, Ravi Dixit, aresh Kumar and Parth Sharma.

''We look forward to atleast two Indians qualifying for the main draw and make it a large field'', Mr Ramachandran and Mr Manian said.

UNI VV AY DS1225