Ritwik crashes out, Saurav chugs along

India No 1 and and seventh seed Saurav Ghosal held his nerve amidst the flurry of upsets, ekeing out a hard-fought victory over Egypt’s Mohd El Shorbagy to book his last-eight berth. Second seed Ong Beng Hee too advanced to the quarter-finals, getting the better of Amr Mansi.

Defending champion Iskandar, ranked 15 in the world, was beaten 3-11 9-11 11-3 11-6 by Pakistan’s Shahid Zaman. The Pakistani may be ranked 38 places below the Malaysian, but he looked in complete control right throughout the match.

Iskandar looked in command of the situation, but only briefly, after winning the third game. But Zaman picked up the pace in the next game, ensuring a well-deserved victory.

In the other upset of the day, Ritwik paid the price for losing his cool, eventually conceding a 8-11 7-11 6-11 defeat to 4th seed Aamir Atlas Khan of Pakistan.

Ritwik repeatedly questioned the referee’s decisions, and on one occasion even stepped out of the court, refusing to continue playing till the referee explained a particular decision. Even as Ritwik was getting temperamental and fumbled, his 29th ranked opponent held his nerve and had the last laugh. It took the in-form Pakistani just over half an hour to ease past Ritwik.

Shorbagy’s performance was another big disappointment of the day. The Junior British Open champion flattered to deceive in a closely fought battle, raising hopes of an upset win over Saurav after winning the first game 11-10 (2-0), only to lose the plot in the course of the match. Saurav used all his experience to beat the Egyptian 10-11 (0-2) 11-6 11-10(2-0) 11-7 in under an hour.

Saurav next faces another Egyptian, Omar Mossad, who made short work of Gaurav Nandrajog, winning in just under half an hour. After the roller-coaster encounter, Saurav had a word or two of praise for his young opponent. “He is a very good player, and very soon he will be well-known in the circuit,” Saurav said.

Looking back at the match, a candid Saurav said: “I was lucky to win a few crunch points. On another day, it could have gone his way. During the match, Ritwik was helping me out with a few pointers during the breaks, asking me to keep it tight. It helped, but theres not really much you can do in a 120-second interval.”