The third-seeded pair of Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal entered the mixed doubles final of the Chennai Open doubles squash championships at the Indian Squash Academy court on Wednesday.
They will meet the top-seeded Egyptian-Australian pair of Ali Anwar Reda and Rachael Grinham in final on Thursday.
The other Indian combinations (Dipika-Joshna Chinnappa as well as Ghosal-Harinderpal Singh Sandhu), however, went down fighting in the women’s and men’s doubles matches, respectively.
Saurav and Dipika had to launch a 48-minute battle in the semifinal against the Scottish team of Alan Clyne and Frania Gillen-Buchert.
They lost the closely fought first game 9-11 before taking the next two games to march ahead into the title clash.
Alan and Frania looked set to pull off another stunning win by taking the first game.
Saurav and Dipika won the second game 11-6 and with the scores level at 1-1, kept the pressure on to clinch the decider.
Dipika could not carry her winning streak into the women’s doubles where she partnered Chinnappa. Though they tried their best to put a good fight, the English-Australian combination of Jenny Duncalf and Rachael Grinham had the extra bit of edge to emerge winners in straight games in 35 minutes.
Results
Women: Jenny Duncalf (Eng) and Rachael Grinham (Aus) bt Dipika Pallikal and Joshna Chinnappa (Ind) 11-9 11-9; Donna Urquhart and Kasey Brown (Aus) bt Jaclyn Haweks (NZ) and Samantha Teran (Mex) 11-6 11-7; Mixed: Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal (Ind) bt Alan Clyne and Frania Gillen (Sco) 9-11 11-6 11-7. Ali Anwar Reda (Egy) and Rachael Grinham (Aus) bt Chris Simpson and Jenny Duncalf (Eng) 11-9 6-11 11-5; Men: Jonathan Kemp (Eng) and Stephen Coppinger (RSA) bt Saurav Ghosal and Harinderpal Sandhu 5-11 11-10 11-9; Harry Leitch and Alan Clyne (Sco) bt Chris Small and Lyall Paterson (Sco) 11-7 11-3.
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