CHENNAI: India would have returned with three medals from the recently concluded World Doubles Squash Championships if it were not for two strokes. After the team of Vikram Malhotra and Joshna Chinappa had gone down 11-8, 9-11, 9-11 to the Australian duo of David Palmer and Rachael Grinham, the same fate followed Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal. They lost out to top seeds Paul Coll and Joelle King 7-11, 11-10, 9-11.
However, the Indian squad did not return empty-handed. A bronze was won thanks to the women’s doubles team of Joshna and Dipika. It’s a fall from 2016 when a similar squad won an unprecedented three medals at the Worlds Doubles in Darwin. But national coach Cyrus Poncha wants to look at the positives. “We had two very close losses in the quarterfinals,” he told Express.
“Overall, we have learnt a lot from the event and hopefully in the coming months, we will get more match practice. The ultimate aim is to be ready when the Commonwealth Games comes around next April. We might also be headed to Malaysia for a test event in the near future, depending on the availability of players so as to continue the learning process.”India were expected to win more than one medal but the unexpected loss of Harinder Pal Singh to injury so close to the tournament set the team back. “In a sense, yes, because Harinder is an experienced doubles player and the injury meant Vikram had to double up.”
One player who did not have to do that was Ghosal, who has decided to concentrate on mixed and singles for the time being. “It was unfortunate that we lost in close encounters twice,” he said. “But I think we have learnt a lot about sides we could potentially face at the Commonwealths. So now we have an information bank. The good thing is even though it’s a setback, we have enough time to put whatever we have learnt into practice.”The World No 27, who has a host of tournaments lined up, also confirmed that he will be pairing up with Dipika at Gold Coast for CWG. “Yup, that decision was taken two months ago,” he said.
How they fared
Men’s doubles: Vikram Malhotra and Mahesh Mangaonkar (played 2, lost 2). Women’s doubles: Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal (bronze). Mixed doubles: Saurav Ghosal and Pallikal (5th place), Joshna and Malhotra (7th place).
swaroop@newindianexpress.com