Ritwik, Joshna clinch titles in Jaipur squash

JAIPUR: Ritwik Bhattacharya and Joshna Chinappa justified their top billing by clinching the men's and women's titles respectively at the All India Jaipur Club Harish Chandra Golecha Memorial Squash tournament in Jaipur on Sunday.

Ritwik avenged his defeat in last year' final by defeating Gaurav Nandrajog in straight sets in just over half an hour.

A repeat of last year's final never looked likely and Ritwik ran out 9-1 9-2 9-4 winner.

Displaying awesome power, the country's top player took the first game in 11 minutes, second in 12 and third in 13 minutes to clinch the title.

Ritwik had also lost to Gaurav in the semi-final at the nationals in Delhi.

The world number 41 had said earlier that he needed to be more attacking and he demostrated the same against Gaurav who kept asking for let during the whole match.

The women's final was also a one-sided affair. Promising local girl Surabhi Mishra, the second seed here, could not match her far superior rival with Joshna earning a facile 9-1 9-2 9-4 victory.

In contrast, the boys' Under-19 final was a gruelling affair in which local lad and now SRFI trainee, Partha Sharma prevailed in a five-set battle against Naresh Kumar.

In the decider, Naresh, took advantage of unforced errors by Partha to take a 5-0 lead. But the local player pulled up his socks to level the score at eight and ultimately triumphed 9-5 4-9 9-2 6-9 10-8.

The boys' U-13 title went to Karan Thariyamal who defeated Deepak Mishra 9-0 10-8 9-5 while the U-17 section was won by Cyril Kuhn, who beat Ravi dixit 9-2 6-9 9-1 10-8.