Calcutta: On paper, Saurav Ghosal was the lower ranked player. But when the city lad turned up the heat at his home club courts, during the semi-final of the Kolkata International JSW Indian Squash Circuit meet here on Saturday, he simply wiped off second seed Stephen Coppinger of South Africa 11-4, 11-4, 11-3 in 45 minutes.

The third seed will now take on top seed Marwan Elshorbagy of Egypt in the final on Sunday. Elshorbagy defeated fourth seed Chris Simpson of England 11-5, 11-6, 11-13, 11-6 in 55 minutes in the first semi-final.

Saurav, however, did not agree that he had an easy time on court as the score suggested. "It was tough out there. But today, I did a few things better. We had very long rallies and somehow, I managed to end them well. Coppinger is a very good player and is ranked 17th in the world. Am glad I could win." If Saurav manages to pull it off on Sunday, it will be his first $35,000 title.

"See the scoreline may suggest that I had an easy match. Its often not how it seems. I really had to fight it out and make Coppinger play," he added.

"I know he is playing really well. He hadn't dropped a game yet in this tournament. He was cutting every ball off and setting a high pace. The scores don't reflect how hard the match was."