Former National champion Ritwik Bhattacharya of Delhi and current women's National champion Joshna Chinappa of Chennai have been given the pride of place in the men's Open and women's categories respectively in the 61st CCI-Western India Open squash tournament, to be held in Mumbai, from November 21 to 27.

Joining Bhattacharya in the Open category are number two seed Manish Chotrani of Mumbai, third seed Gaurav Nandrajog of Delhi, fourth seed Vikas Jangra of Maharashtra and fifth seed Supreet Singh of Mumbai.

The tournament carries Rs 400,000 in prize-money. The men's champion will be richer by Rs 60,000 while the runner-up will receive Rs 30,000.

The women's champion will pocket Rs 20,000 and the runner-up Rs 10,000.

Chinappa has also been given the top billing in the girls' under-19 category while Sandeep Jangra is the top seed in the boys' under-19 and under-17 sections.

Local lass Shivangi Paranjpe is the top seed in the girls' under-15 group while Laxman Joshi and Aditya Jagtap (both from Mumbai) are the top seeds in the boys' under-15 and under-13 categories respectively.

In the boys' under-11 section, local lad Mahesh Mangaonkar gets the top billing while Darius Surti (over 35), Vaman Apte (over 45), Raj Manchanda (over 55) and Sachin Jadhav (professionals) are the top seeds in their categories.