Indian doubles pair of Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal Karthik settled for a bronze medal after losing to English duo of Jenny Duncalf and Alison Waters in the semifinals of the WSF World doubles Squash championships here today.
The second seeded Indian combo squandered an advantage to suffer a 11-6, 6-11, 8-11 loss to Jenny and Alison.
After winning the first game, the Indian pair looked good but the brief interval proved a big game-changer for the hosts as Jenny and Alison tightened their defence and varied the strokes to catch the Indians on the wrong foot mostly in the forecourt.
The Indians, though matched in the rallies, failed to make progress and went down fighting till the last.
Joshna and Dipika had earlier come back from a game down to beat the lower seeded Canadians Samantha Cornett and Nikole Todd 10-11, 11-6, 11-8 last night and that ensured that India will return with one medal at least.
In mixed doubles, Indian pairs of Saurav Ghosal and Dipika, and Vikram Malhotra and Joshna Chinappa crashed out one after the other in the two quarterfinals held concurrently on side by side courts.
The second seeded Saurav and Dipika were pitted against the top seed Paul Coll and Joelle King. 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.
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