CWG 2018 Squash: Joshna advances to quarters, Dipika exits

GOLD COAST (Australia): Joshna Chinappa continued her good run at the 21st Commonwealth Games as the Indian squash player defeated lower-ranked Tamika Saxby of Australia in round-of-16 women's singles match while her compatriot Dipika Pallikal lost at the Oxenford Studios here on Friday.

Chinappa took 22 minutes to thrash her 57th ranked Australian opponent 3-0 (11-6, 11-8, 11-4). The 14th ranked Indian player look comfortable from the beginning and was at her devastating best throughout the match.

Saxby, on the other hand, found it difficult in the middle and failed to match the pace of Chinappa and lost the match.In other match, it was a bad day for her compatriot Dipika as she lost to Alison Waters of England 0-3 (3-11, 6-11, 2-11) in a 20-minute contest.

Right from the start Dipika never looked in the contention as she was totally outplayed in the first game. The second game saw some fight-back from the Indian player but her opponent proved superior at the end and seal the game in just nine minutes.

In the final game, Dipika only managed to score two points and thus lost the issue in just four minutes to crash out of the meet.

Earlier in the day, India's campaign in men's singles event came to an end after Vikram Malhotra lost 1-3 to England's Nick Matthew in a Round-of-16 match.The higher-ranked Nick dominated the opening game 11-6 that lasted for nine minutes before Vikram pulled back the second game 11-8 in 10 minutes.

The Indian however, went down 6-11, 6-11 in the third and fourth games to eventually bow out of the quadrennial tournament.On Thursday, Harinder Pal Sandhu and Saurav Ghosal suffered losses in their respective round-of-32 men's singles matches.