India is assured of a podium finish as defending champion Ritwik Bhattacharya plays former finalist Saurav Ghosal in the semi-finals of the ICL Chennai Open World Professional Squash Championship in Chennai on Saturday.
The other semi-final will be between third seed Dyland Bennett of the Netherlands and sixth seed Majid Khan of Pakistan, who scalped his compatriot and top seed Khayal Muhammad Khan in a close encounter.
The Indians were drawn in the bottom half of the draw and Ghosal, after dropping the first game against Tom Richards of England 6-11, found his rhythm and length in the next three (11-7 17-15 11-5) to win the match in 50 minutes.
Ghosal and Bhattacharya will be playing against each other in major tournaments for the sixth time with Bhattacharya leading the head-to-head count with four wins, including two in the recent past.
In the match between second seed Bhattacharya and fifth seed Yasir Butt of Pakistan, the visitor was in his elements in winning the first game 11-9 but failed to keep up the momentum once the Indian started to control his speed and used side walls effectively to win points on rallies.
Bhattacharya tore his rival down in the next three games to win the match 9-11 11-3 11-7 11-3.
In the other quarter-final matches, Dylan Bennett had to stave off a fighting Wai Hang Wong of Hong Kong 11-4 11-8 10-12 11-7, while Majid Khan ousted Muhammad at 12-10 8-11 11-3 5-11 11-5.
