It’s about how good you are on a bad day: Ritwik

That’s exactly what Ritwik Bhattacharya, currently ranked a career-high 43, has imbibed so far as a squash professional. And he believes he will be among the top 30 in the world by the year-end.

MUMBAI: From carrying the bags of former world champion Rodney Eyles, to becoming an accomplished junior, and finally a fairly successful professional, Ritwik Bhattacharya has come a long way.

India’s best squash player is currently enjoying perhaps the best phase of his career. A string of decent to good performances in the last couple of years — most notably winning two consecutive Chennai Open titles — have enabled the 26-year-old to move up to 43 in the latest Professional Squash Association (PSA) rankings, the best position he has attained so far.

“My strengths so far have been my fitness, discipline and determination as also the fact that I’ve been on the Tour for some time now,” explains Ritwik, who is seeded second — behind 35th-ranked Australian Dan Jenson — for the PSA Otters Open beginning next week. All the same, the Pathankot-born player is very much aware of the demands of professional squash.

“The game has changed over the years and has become more attacking with the 11-point system. There’s a lot of talent on display, and so is the level of professionalism,” he says. “Ideally a player should restrict himself to 12-14 tournaments a year, or even less.”

So how much difficult is it for him to adapt in such a changed scenario?

“It’s about how good you are on your bad day. That’s precisely what I learnt during my training in England,” explains Ritwik, adding, “I’m working on a few things, like movement and timing and my target is to make it to the top 30 by the end of the year.”

Ritwik is also elated at the success of his compatriots — Joshna Chinappa and Sourav Ghoshal — though he denies any sort of rivalry with the latter. “We’re good friends and I’ve seen him grow up. My competition isn’t with him per se but with the rest of the world,” he says.

The 26-year-old has cut down on the number of events and post the Otters tournament, will head for the World Cup qualifiers in Cairo (Egypt), after which he will return to play in the Nationals. “Just qualifying and making it to the main draw at Cairo would be better than winning here,” he remarks.

But there’s something which is even more important and Ritwik’s itinerary is such that he will get ample time for the same.

“For me representing India is something special and in the three months between the Nationals and the Asian Games, I’ll go back to London to take part in the league and will also play about five-six tournaments,” says the man who first represented India at the tender age of 15. And he now waits for another such opportunity at the Doha Games.