CWG 2018 | Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal enter mixed doubles pre-quarters
Indians had a happy day at the squash courts with one pair, Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal Karthik making it to the knock out phase by the end of the day in the mixed doubles event. The top two finishers in each of the eight Pools qualify for the next phase and the Indians have achieved that.
The day started with the champion women's doubles pair of Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal Karthik, the third seeds making short work of the Pakistani pair of Faiza Zafar and Madina Zafar in a Pool C league. The match had its twists with the Pakistani pair grabbing the first game but the end result was on familiar lines with the Indians coming back strongly to script a 10-11, 11-0,11-1 win in 22 minutes.
Then came the quick work of the mixed pair duo of Dipika and Saurav Ghosal a few hours later against Mary Fung-a Fat and Jason Ray Khalil of Guyana. The fifth-seeded Indians won this Pool E match comfortably at 11-3, 11-3 and little later returned to the court again for their final Pool match against the Pakistani pair of Madina Zafar and Tayyab Aslam. The Indians again showed class with a fluent 11-2, 11-3 win to top the Pool and become the first team in the mixed doubles competition to enter the next round.
Further happy tidings came when Joshna and Harinder Pal Sandhu teamed up for their mixed doubles Pool H against Caroline Laing and Jacob Kelly of Cayman Islands. The Indians won the match 11-3, 11-6.