Ritwik Bhattacharya with Pakistan’s Yasir Butt (left) and Khayal Muhammad Khan at the Calcutta Racket Club on Monday. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta: Current national champion Saurav Ghosal is not intimidated by the prospect of facing the top seed at the Calcutta International Squash Championship which got underway at the Calcutta Racket Club on Monday.

Saurav, who earned a direct entry into the main draw as a wild card entrant thanks to his national champion status, is scheduled to meet world No. 16 Mohammed Azlan Iskander of Malaysia in the first round.

“I’m not under any pressure because I’m not the top seed here. Azlan is a really tough challenge, but I’m cherishing the prospect of facing him,” said Saurav, who won the British Open under-19 title last year.

Azlan also preferred to play it cool.

“I want to take it step by step. I know he’s a local favourite and it’ll be an interesting match. But I don’t want to let the pressure weigh me down. Had it been a couple of years ago, I might have felt the pressure? but not now,” the Malaysian said.

The presence of No. 2 seed and world No. 33 Cameron Pilley of Australia, Shahier Razik of Canada (No. 38), Mohammed Essam A Hafiz of Egypt (No. 39) and England’s Ben Garner (No. 40) has gone into making the meet competitive and worth the prize money of $20,000.

Yasir Butt (world No. 48), Arshad Iqbal Burki (world No. 53), Khayal Muhammad Khan and Basid Ashfaq (both qualifiers) are representatives from Pakistan in the meet.

“It’s a huge challenge for me to participate in a tournament of such magnitude,” Khayal later said.

He admitted there’s always extra pressure to perform back home since Pakistan have an envious squash legacy, left behind by the likes of Jansher Khan and Jahangir Khan.

“They are squash greats? I can only dream of following their legacy,” he remarked.

India’s top-ranked player Ritwik Bhattacharya, fighting here as a qualifier, is taking the meet very seriously.

“I want to earn as many PSA points as possible to reach a ranking where I can get direct entry into the PSA meets. It’s a local atmosphere around and if I can’t make the most of it, it’ll be my fault,” Ritwik said.

Ramit loses

The 13-year-old Ramit Tandon lost to Tony James of Australia in the qualifying round on Monday. The Australian won the match 11-4, 11-8, 11-2.

While Ritwik got a bye in the first round of qualifiers, Surpreet Singh moved into the next one, edging past Kuwait’s Nasser al-Ramzi 9-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-10 (2-0), 11-8. Both Indians will face each other in the second round.