Saurav Ghoshal had fancied his chances against Ritwik Bhattacharya in their second meeting in a fortnight in Mumbai. The reason he had lost the first encounter, at the Otters Open, was because of his earlier rigours in the boys event. That had left him with tired legs.But at the Herald Maritime Services Open,Saurav had avoided the juniors event even though it was paying Rs 50,000. He was trying for the

Rs 75,000 jackpot, the highest prize ever in the history of Indian squash. But he was to miss out. All he could do was take a game off Ritwik at 15-14. Ritwik made his short opponent move from one corner up front to another diagonally at the back. Most opponents would have cracked. Ghoshal did only after making some grand retrievals. He also had some great finishing shots like the forehand volley into the nick that had the beating of Ritwik. But his downtheline volleys were tame and he had just a couple of backhanders into the nick. Ritwik didn’t play as many shots as his opponent, kept ball in play and won by unforced errors of the Kolkata lad now training at Chennai. Saurav had to be content with Rs 35,000. With Joshna Chinappa busy training for the world juniors, the women’s crown and prize of Rs 30,000 was a piece of cake for Mekhala Subedar. The surprise of the tournament was Priyanka Yadav, India No 4.