Jakarta: Indian squash players Dipika Pallikal Karthik and Joshna Chinappa had to be content with bronze medals in women’s singles after losing to their respective opponents in the semifinals of the 18th Asian Games here today.
While Dipika lost to defending champion Nicol David of Malaysia in the first semifinal, Joshna was shown the door by Malaysian Sivasangari Subramaniam. In the first semifinal, Dipika, who won a bronze in 2014 Asian Games, lost to the Malaysian stalwart and former world number one David 0-3 (7-11 9-11 6-11).
David has won the Asian Games singles titles four times earlier. The Indian had beaten Japanese Kobayashi Misaki 3-0 in the quarterfinals.
Later in the day, Joshna failed to match up to the level of her 19-year-old opponent, losing 1-3 (10-12 6-11 11-9 7-11). Both the losing semifinalists win a bronze and there is no bronze-medal play-off. Saurav Ghosal is the lone Indian squash player remaining in the fray and will take on Hong Kong China’s Au Chun Ming in the men’s singles semifinals later in the day.
