‘Dipika’s pullout did us in’
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The recently concluded Commonwealth Games was a big disappointment for Indian squash players. The hosts, who were expected to break their CWG medal jinx in New Delhi, fell flat. Joshna Chinappa and Saurav Ghosal were the lone bright spark in an otherwise lacklustre show. The duo, who made it to the mixed doubles quarterfinals, had a tough ask against world No.1 Nicol David and her countryman Ong Beng Hee.
The 24-year-old Joshna attributes the country’s failure to win a medal to the pullout of her doubles partner Dipika Pallikal owing to illness. Dipika had to withdraw from singles as well as doubles as she was down with fever.
Joshna said India’s medal prospects were in the doubles and mixed doubles, but Dipika’s pullout forced late changes in the team combination.
The Chennai girls were to compete in the doubles, but withdrew their entry as Dipika could not recover from illness in time. In the mixed doubles event, India’s highest-ranked player Saurav was paired with his regular partner Dipika, but at the last minute had to play with Joshna.
“There are no excuses that we lost and we are all sad. Our medal chances were never in the men’s and women singles since the field had many top players. But we were more than confident of getting a medal in the doubles and mixed doubles,” explained Joshna.
In singles, Saurav and Joshna exited as expected after running into eventual medallists. Joshna lost to five-time world champion Nicol while Saurav could not get past third seed Englishman Peter Barker in the pre-quarterfinals.
Joshna said she was never comfortable playing alongside Saurav and that showed in the end result. “Doubles is all about co-ordination which was not evident when we two played. It is unfortunate that my partner Harinder Pal Sandhu had to sit out because of Dipika’s pullout,” said Joshna.
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