Dipika’s pullout denied us a squash medal: Joshna

NEW DELHI - India’s top women’s squash player Joshna Chinappa has attributed the country’s failure to win a medal in the sport at the Commonwealth Games to the pullout of her doubles partner Dipika Pallikal owing to illness.

Joshna said India’s medal prospects were in the doubles and mixed doubles, but Dipika’s pullout forced late changes in the team combination.

Dipika and Joshna were to compete in the doubles, but withdrew their entry as Dipika could not recover from illness in time. In the mixed doubles event, India’s highest- ranked men’s player Saurav Ghoshal was paired with his regular partner Dipika, but at the last minute had to play with Joshna.

“There are no excuses that we lost and we are all sad. Our medal chances were never in the men’s and women singles since the field had many top players. But we were more than confident of getting a medal in the doubles and mixed doubles,” Joshna told IANS.

Joshna lost to world no.1 Nicol David of Malaysia while Saurav could not get past third seed Englishman Peter Barker in the pre-quarterfinals of the singles. And later, the inexperienced pair crashed out in the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles.

The 24-year-old from Coorg said she was never comfortable playing alongside Saurav and that showed in the end result.

“The doubles or mixed event is all about co-ordination which was not evident when we two played. It is unfortunate that my partner Harinder Pal Sandhu had to sit out since the coaches decided that higher-ranked Saurav and I should play in the absence of Dipika,” said Joshna.