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Ritwik's world ranking is 62 in April, 2005.

Losone Open Squash Championship, Losone, Switzerland (15th - 17th April, 2005)

1st round:
[1] Davide Bianchetti (ITA) bt [Q] Jesse Engelbrecht (ZIM) 11-5, 11-5, 11-6 (34m)
Ramy Ashour (EGY) bt [6] Lars Harms (SUI) 11-10 (3-1), 11-5, 11-9 (20m)
[3] Shahier Razik (CAN) bt Andre Holderegger (SUI) 11-7, 11-3, 11-7 (34m)
[5] Eric Galvez (MEX) bt [Q] Morten W Sorensen (DEN) 11-3, 11-9, 11-9 (45m)
[8] Saurav Ghosal (IND) bt Julien Balbo (FRA) 9-11, 11-9, 11-2, 11-8 (50m)
[4] Gavin Jones (WAL) bt Bradley Hindle (AUS) 11-7, 11-7, 11-5 (38m)
[7] Ritwik Bhattacharya (IND) bt [Q] Ryan Thompson (NAM) 11-3, 11-4, 11-2 (28m)
[2] Borja Golan (ESP) bt [Q] Michael Fiteni (NED) 11-5, 11-8, 11-3 (34m)

Quarter-finals:
Ramy Ashour (EGY) bt [1] Davide Bianchetti (ITA) 5-11, 11-3, 4-11, 11-10 (3-1), 11-8
[3] Shahier Razik (CAN) bt [5] Eric Galvez (MEX) 11-10 (2-0), 11-8, 11-2 (47m)
[4] Gavin Jones (WAL) bt [8] Saurav Ghosal (IND) 11-8, 11-3, 11-7
[7] Ritwik Bhattacharya (IND) bt [2] Borja Golan (ESP) 5-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-6, 11-9 (58m)

Semi-finals:
[3] Shahier Razik (CAN) bt Ramy Ashour (EGY) 11-8, 11-8, 11-3 (32m)
[4] Gavin Jones (WAL) bt [7] Ritwik Bhattacharya (IND) 10-11 (0-2), 11-10 (2-0), 11-10 (2-0), 8-11, 11-6

Final:
[3] Shahier Razik (CAN) bt [4] Gavin Jones (WAL) 11-9, 11-9, 11-6 (54m)

Wow what epic SF match for Ritwik ... There was nothing to differntiate these tow players after looing score ... And Jones loss into final was expected one after playing long semi final which must drained out him totally.

Great week for Ritwik.

Jaydeep.

Ritwik had to play back-to-back long matches in the QF and SF. He upset the second seed Borja Golan of Spain in the QF and nearly pulled off a SF victory.

In squash, the pecking order is almost set in stone and one rarely sees a lower-ranked player beat a higher-ranked one -- and, indeed, one player often dominates the world rankings for long periods (as happened with Hunt, Jahangir and Jansher).
In light of this, I think Ritwik's victory over the second seed here is a major breakthrough in his career. Losing to the 4th seed in that very tight match is also a sign of serious progress. I presume this will enable him to break into the top-50 for the first time...

This will move him up from his current (career high)ranking of 62 to up into the top 60 around 57-58. It is (I believe) the highest number of points he has ever accumulated at any single tournament.

Wow Very good show from Ritwik... And thanks Voodoochild for all the reports

For those of you in Atlanta Ritwik is playing there tomorrow May 11th (Sorry for the short notice). Matches start at 4:00 PM and details can be found at

http://www.globalsquash.com/webAlbums/2005prodraw.htm

The Draw
First Round Wednesday 11th of May at 4pm

MOHAMED ESSAM A HAFIZ (EGYPT) v RITWIK BHATTACHARYA (INDIA)
MATTHEW GIUFFRE (CANADA) v Qualifier 1
STEPHANE GALIFI (FRANCE) V Qualifier 2
MARK HEATHER (ENGLAND) V Qualifier 3
MARTIN HEATH (SCOTLAND) V JEAN-MICHEL ARCUCCI (FRANCE)
Qualifier 4 V ALISTER WALKER (ENGLAND)
VIKTOR BERG (CANADA) V GAVIN JONES (WALES)
BORJA GOLAN (SPAIN) V ROBERT McFADZEAN (SOUTH AFRICA)

Its a tough matchup and draw for Ritwik playing the top seed and the (#35??) player in the world first up so I am sure he could do with all the crowd support.

Mohamed Essam is ranked 35th in the world and won the National Egyptian Title in 2002.

Go Ritwik.

Very tough first round for Ritwik ... Go Ritwik go.

Jaydeep.

Ritwik beat the top seed.

MOHAMED ESSAM A HAFIZ (EGYPT) lost RITWIK BHATTACHARYA (INDIA) 9, 7, 3


Quarter Finals Thursday at 2pm

RITWIK BHATTACHARYA (INDIA) v MATTHEW GIUFFRE (CANADA)

STEPHANE GALIFI (FRANCE) v MARK HEATHER (ENGLAND)

JEAN-MICHEL ARCUCCI (FRANCE) v ALISTER WALKER (ENGLAND)

GAVIN JONES (WALES) V BORJA GOLAN (SPAIN)

Matthew Giuffre is ranked #51 in the world. Ritwik is #62 currently.

Thats a superb stuff by Ritwik ... This must be his best win of his career ... Thsi win help him lot in improving his ranking ... And he beat this tough opponent in straight three sets ... Great stuff Ritwik ... Go took care of Canadian.

Jaydeep.

Great win by Ritwik. Ritwik lost to MATTHEW GIUFFRE (CAN) 3-11, 11-10 {2-0}, 7-11, 10-11 {0-2} in March this year at the Quebec Open in a tight match so this is a good place to get one back.

There are no bonus points in the squash rankings so no it doesn't really help his ranking. Because of the way the rankings on the circuit work as this is his 11th event, he moves from the best 8 tournaments to the best 9 tournaments. This basically means that Ritwik needed to get more than 46.5 points to not get his ranking to drop.

As this is a $10000 (1 star) event he has already recieved (3.25% of $10000)/10 =32.5 points for his efforts. If he wins again he will have (5.5%==> 55 points). A semifinal appearance should get him 90 points (9%) and a final 140 points and a win 200 points. Then you need take his previous points avergae of 46.5 multiply it by 8 add the additional points and then divide it by 9 to get the new point score and the new ranking. Hope that make sense.

How the ranks work http://www.squashplayer.co.uk/how_the_rankings_work.htm
Ritwik's points so far http://www.psa-squash.com/ranking/1620515.htm
Current world rankings http://www.psa-squash.com/ranking/horizonr.htm

Hope that all helps.

PS: The matches are in Atlanta so all those in Atlanta remember to go there if you can.

Thanks Dhruv for clearing this whole ranking stuff of Squash ... Frankly for me it looks more complicated ...

They should consider much easier approach like tennis ... But then pundit of squash must be finding this very easy ...

Jaydeep.

Still no news about Ritwak's match. None of the squash websites have reported the results of the matches that were scheduled for Thursday.