Chennai, July 6 (IANS) National champion and top seed Saurav Ghosal retained his Chennai Open squash crown as he overcame compatriot Ritwik Bhattacharya 7-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-6, in the men’s final here Sunday for his third PSA title. The men’s final was an excellent display of rally finishing. Bhattacharya played a tight first game and this showed in his finishing the game in just 10 minutes.

The second game set the tone for the rest of the match. Unforced errors by Bhattacharya allowed Ghosal to level the match. The next couple of games saw Ghosal gliding over the court and the ‘human rubber band’ was able to run down practically every ball to take control of the third game as well.

The fourth game saw Ghosal jump to a 5-1 lead, and though Bhattacharya played some excellent points, he wasn’t in a position to wrest the momentum away from Ghosal.

The match ended tamely though, with a stroke being awarded to Ghosal to retain the Chennai Open crown he had won last year.

Later, teenager Dipika Palliakal, seeded fifth, went down 9-3, 10-8, 10-8, to No.4 Annie Au from Hong Kong in the women’s final.

Dipika, searching for her first Women International Squash Player’s Association (WISPA) tour title, struggled at the onset with Annie’s drop-drive game.

In the second set, Dipika squandered her 8-0 lead going as the Hong Kong player took a firm grip of the match.

In the third, Annie played aggressively and raced to a 7-2 lead, Dipika fought hard and won seven games on the trot to move to 8-7. However, in the final twist, Annie bounced back to win three points for the match as Dipika blew three game balls.

The results (seedings in brackets):

PSA Men’s final: (1) Saurav Ghosal (IND) bt (2) Ritwik Bhattacharya (IND) 7-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-6 (49 min)

WISPA Women’s final: (4) Annie Au (HKG) bt (5) Dipika Pallikal (IND) 9-3, 10-8, 10-8 (44 min)