JOIN USIt will be an all India final for the first time ever in the Asian Squash championship when Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal Karthik clash in the women’s singles event here on Sunday.
Saurav Ghosal, meanwhile, became the first Indian male squash player to reach the men's singles final of the event.
Ghosal proved too strong for the fifth seeded Leo Au of Hong Kong as he won 11-6, 11-7, 11-3.
He will take on the top seed Max Lee of Hong Kong in the final. Max beat Malaysian Nafiizwan Adnan, seeded third, 12-10, 11-6, 11-5 in the other men’s semifinal. The two Indian women made the final of the tournament with contrasting wins on Saturday.
While Pallikal, seeded fourth, upset top seed Annie Au of Hong Kong 11-9, 7-11, 11-7, 11-9, the second seeded Chinappa made short work of Hong Kong’s sixth-seed Tong Tsz Wing 11-6, 11-4, 11-8 to storm into the final.
In the first semifinal, Pallikal stunned Au in 50 minutes.
With this victory, Pallikal has posted her third win over the Hong Kong player, ranked 11th in the world, in ten meetings.
Pallikal took the opening game to lay down the marker. However, Au came back strongly to claim the second game. Pallikal however seized the initiative in the third and kept Au off balance to win the tie.
Chinappa, meanwhile, completely dominated her rival as she took the first two games easily before Wing posed a challenge in the third. But the Indian shut her rival out to clinch the tie in her favour.