Manchester: After the good news late last night when Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal Karthik made it to the women’s doubles semi-final which has assured India of one medal, there was double disappointment today when both the mixed doubles pairs lost out in the quarterfinal round of the WSF-World doubles squash championship being held here.
In a match that started late and went close to midnight last night (India time), Joshna and Dipika, the second seeds came back from a game down to beat the lower seeded Canadians Samantha Cornett and Nikole Todd 10-11, 11-6, 11-8. The focus will now be on them for they form the last link for India in this Championship as they take on the England duo of Jenny Duncalf and Alison Waters later tonight in the semi-final.
Just as the happy tidings were sinking in for India came the double blow on Friday when the pairs Saurav Ghosal/ Dipika and Vikram Malhotra/ Joshna Chinappa crashed out one after the other in the two quarterfinals held concurrently on side by side courts. The pity was that both these pairs had the chance of emerging winners but lost out in the final stretch of the extended contests. The second seed Saurav and Dipika were pitted against the top seed Paul Coll and Joelle King (something that should have come in the final in keeping with the seedings but the New Zealand pair had finished the next best in the league phase and thus this unexpected early meeting). The contest was close from start and turned closer as it warmed up. After the pairs had traded a game each the Indians had edged ahead in the decider before slipping at the business end. Coll and King won 11-7, 10-11, 11-9.
Similar was the fate of Joshna and Vikram against the Australians David Palmer and Rachael Grinham. The Indians bagged the first game and gave fair indication of being on song. But as the match wore on, the points ran close. The Australian pair inched ahead in the battle of rallies and as luck would have it Joshna and Vikram gave in. Palmer and Grinham won 8-11, 11-9, 11-9.
