Kuala Lumpur : India’s leading squash players Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal enjoyed a fruitful warm up to the next month’s Commonwealth Games by winning the mixed doubles title at the Tri-Nation invitational tournament on Wednesday.Ghosal and Pallikal, who are busy playing singles on the professional tour, outsmarted the 2010 Commonwealth Games silver medallists Martin Knight and Joelle King in the final played at the National Squash Centre. The Indians came from behind to beat the New Zealand pair 9-11, 11-7, 11-5.
Teams from hosts Malaysia, India and New Zealand are competing in the three-day event.
The win comes at a good time for Ghosal and Pallikal, who remain India’s best bet in both singles and doubles category at the Glasgow Games, beginning July 23.
“It definitely gives us confidence going into the Commonwealth Games. There are things we need to work on and we have taken note of that.
“Seeing the other countries play was also a learning experience. All in all it was a good couple of days,” Ghosal said.
The World No.16 in singles along with Harinder Pal Sandhu finished third out of six teams in the men’s doubles.
India can win another gold when Pallikal and Joshana Chinappa face New Zealand’s Joelle and Amanda Landers Murphy in the women’s doubles.
Pallikal and Chinappa pulled off a remarkable 2-1 win over Malaysian heavyweights Nicol David and Low Wee Wern in the semifinals. —PTI
(To download our E-paper please click here. The publishers permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)
