Chennai Open Doubles 2010
08-11 March, Indian Squash Academy, Chennai
Medals decided in Chennai
A hectic ten days PSA and WISPA events came to a close with
Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Palikal winning the Mixed Doubles
title in the Chennai Open 2010 here this evening at the
Indian Squash Academy courts today.
The Indian duo maintained their focus to the optimum
throughout the match and scored a deserving straight games
win over highly rated top seeds Mohd Ali Anwar Reda(Egy)/
Rachael Grinham(Aus) 11-8, 11-4 in 30 minutes.
It was a closely fought out encounter and the Indian duo
brought about their best efforts in raising their game to
greater levels mainly in the closing stages of the games.
The rivals were matching each other in the intial stages of
the games but the manner in which Ghosal and Dipika, who has
been showing great signs of improvement in her performance
clicked with better coordination and exhibited perfect
cohession in their handling of the situation in the closing
stages for winning the title at home.
After winning the first game in a hard way, Ghosal and
Dipika were classy in their approach and execution of shots
and dead drops for winners in the second game, which they
won without much resistence from their rivals.
Earlier in the morning, Ghosal and Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu
finished in third position in a strong field of higher rated
PSA ranked players in the Men’s Doubles, while Joshna
Chinappa and Palikal showed their grit and determination to
claim the bronze medal when they came from behind to beat
the best of Jaclyn Hawkes (NZ) and Samantha Teran (Mexico)
11-7, 6-11, 11-6 in 38 minutes in the women’s doubles.
Ghosal and Sandhu, who have played a tough encounter
yesterday against top seeds Jonathan Kemp(Eng) / Stephen
Coppinger(South Africa) before losing at 11-5,10-11,11-9,
did not exert much today as they went about their task in a
methodical manner. The Indian pair went through the motion
beating Scotts Chris Small/Lyall Paterson 11-5, 11-10 in 40
minutes.
Unlike their men counterparts, Chinappa and Palikal took the
vital lead in the first game after leading 7-1 but lost the
initiative in the second as they trailed 3-6 before losing
the game. However, in the decider, the Indian pair touched
good patch from the beginning. Raising their game to great
effects from 2-1 to 7-2, Chinappa and Palikal executed their
game plan intelligently before winning the match.
The Men’s and Women’s doubles titles were won by Kemp and
Coppinger when they beat Harry Leitch/Alan Clyne(Sco) 5-11,
11-6, 11-8 in 49 minutes and top seeds Jenny Duncalf(Eng)/
Rachael Grinham(Aus) respectively. Duncalf and Grinham
survived some anxious moments in their 8-11,11-9, 11-8 (56
mins) win over Donna Urquhart /Kasey Brown(Aus).
In the third place match in mixed doubles section, Alan
Clyne / Frania Gillen (Sco) defeated Chris Simpson/Jenny
Duncalf(Eng) in straight games of 11-8, 11-6 in 24 minutes.
10-Mar,
Semis:
Jonathan Kemp(Eng)/Stephen Coppinger(Rsa) bt Saurav Ghosal/Harinder pal
Sandhu- 5-11,11-10,11-9 (59 mins)
Harry Leitch/Alan Clyne(Sco) bt Chris Small/Lyall
Paterson(Sco)- 11-7,11-3
Saurav Ghosal /Dipika Pallikal bt Alan Clyne/Frania Gillen (Sco)-
9-11,11-6,11-7 (48m)
Ali Anwar Reda(Egy)/Rachael Grinham(Aus) bt Chris
Simpson/Jenny Duncalf(Eng) 11-9,6-11,5-11 (45m)
A
good spread for the finals ...
Third seeded Ghosal and 18-year-old Palikal will be playing
against top seeds Mohd. Ali Anwar Reda (Egypt) and Aussie
Rachael Grinham in the final tomorrow. Prevailing upon their
rivals for positioning themselves close to the “T” during
most part of the match, the Indian pair won at 9-11, 11-6,
11-8 in 48 minutes against Clyne and Gillen. In the other
semi final Reda-Grinham duo got past England pair of Chris
Simpson and Jenny Duncalf (seeded 4) at 9-11, 11-6, 11-5 in
45 minutes.
Earlier in the men and women semi final matches this
morning, Indian duos of Saurav Ghosal and Harinder Pal Singh
Sandhu fought gallantly before going down to highly rated
Jonathan Kemp (Eng) and Stephen Coppinger, while Joshna
Chinappa and Dipika Palikal were looked to be creating an
upset of sorts but former world number one, Rachael Grinham
of Australia and Jenny Duncalf, presently world number
three, displayed their experience to shut the door on the
Indians at the closing stages of their straight forward two
games win.
In all counts, it was great learning experience for these
four Indian players prior to their participation in the
International Doubles Championship in Manchester (March 29
to 31).
Ghosal and Sandhu lost to Kemp and Coppinger 11-5, 10-11,
9-11 in a marathon 59 minutes duel, while Chinappa and
Dipika played to their potential but survived very close to
winning the match. The Indians lost to top seeded pair of
Duncalf (Eng) and Grinham 11-9, 11-9 in 35 minutes.
The Men’s doubles semi final evoked greater interest amongst
the spectators as 23-year-old Ghosal (PSA Ranked 29) and
Sandhu, who is trained by Malcom Willstrop, coordinated well
and adopted aggressive methods from the beginning of the
match. Showing full court movements, the Indian pair claimed
the first game without much ado.
In the second, Ghosal-Sandhu pair matched their celebrated
rivals who have been in the professional circuit for longer
time. Their movement on the court was swift and they
displayed excellent cohesion in their approach with total
understanding to level the score at 9-9. Here, the
excitement reached a feverish pitch and the rivals were
playing rather tight, not wanting to take any risks.
However, Kemp, who is known for his fast paced game was a
shade better in execution of his shots from rallies and they
won the game and drifted the match to the decider and third
game.
The Indians were not overawed and took the sails out of
their rivals when trailing at 2-7 in the decider. Ghosal/Sandhu
touched their best at this stage and came up with decisive
winners on their come back trail. The Indians played
positively and were able to level the score 7-7 and then 9-9
before yielding the two points for the match.
09-Mar,
Men’s Doubles round 2 Jonathan Kemp(Eng)/Steve Coppinger(Rsa) bt Stuart
Crawford/Jamie Macaulay(Sco) -8-11,11-8,11-10 (55m)
Harry Leitch/Alan Clyne(Sco) bt Siddharth Suchde/ Ritwik
Bhattacharya – 11-8,11-2(40 m)
Chris Small/Lyall Paterson(Sco) bt Ong Beng Hee/Ivan
Yuen(Mas)- 11-9,11-8(45 m)
Saurav Ghosal/ Harinder pal Sandhu bt Gaurav Nandrajog/Sandeep
Jangra- 11-2,11-10
Women’s Doubles round 2 Jenny Duncalf(Eng)/ Rachael Grinham(Aus) bt Aparajitha/
Anwesha Reddy(Ind)- 11-6,11-6(18 m)
Donna Urquhart /Kasey Brown(Aus) bt Frania Gillen/Lisa
Aitken(Sco) – 11-2,11-3 (15m)
Dipika Pallikal/Joshna Chinappa(India) bt Delia Arnold /Low
Wee Wern (Mas) 11-6,11-4(27 m)
Jaclyn Hawkes(NZ)/Samantha Teran(Mex) bt Anaka.A/Surbhi
Mishra – 11-6,11-9 (27 m)
Mixed Doubles round 2 Saurav Ghosal /Dipika Pallikal bt Harinder Sandhu/
Joshana Chinappa – 11-7,11-9(19 m)
Alan Clyne / Frania Gillen (Sco) bt Jonathan Kemp(Eng)/
Jaclyn Hawekes(NZ) 11-10,11-7(20m)
Ali Anwar Reda(Egy)/Rachael Grinham(Aus) bt Stuart
Crawford(Sco)Alex Clark- 11-7,11-6(28m)
Chris Simpson/Jenny Duncalf(Eng) bt Ivan Yuen(Mas)/Samantha
Teran(Mex)- 11-7.11-10(29m)
09 Mar, Day Two: Down to the semis ..
Indian top women’s pair of Joshna Chinappa & Dipika Pallikal
defeated fancied opponents Low wee Wern & Delia Arnold from
Malaysia convincingly to advance to the semi finals at the
Chennai Open Doubles Championship at the Indian Squash
academy.
There was more joy for the Indian mixed doubles pair of
Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal who defeated country mates
Harinder Pal Sandhu/ Joshna Chinappa.
Saurav & Dipika will play against Alan Clyne / Frania
Gillen-Buchert (Sco) who defeated higher ranked opponents
Jonathan Kemp(Eng)/ Jaclyn Hawkes(NZ 11-10,11-7 in 20 mins.
There was more success for the Scots with two pairs through
to the men's doubles semis. Chris Small & Lyall Paterson
beat much higher-ranked Malaysian opponents, while Alan
Clyne made it through to two semi-finals as he and Harry
Leitch beat the home pairing of Bhattacharya & Suchde.
It was almost triple success for the scots, as Stuart
Crawford and Jamie Macaulay held match ball in the decider
against top seeds Jon Kemp & Steve Coppinger, but the
higher-ranked pair squeezed home in sudden death overtime.
08 Mar, Day One: Doubles under way in Chennai
The Chennai Open Doubles got under way at the Indian Squash
Academy with preliminary action in the men's, women's and
mixed draws.
With the Commonwealth Games coming up in October in Delhi,
many of the squads are taking the opportunity to gain
valuable match practice before starting their quest for
medals.
In the men's event the home pairing of Ramit Tandon & Ravi
Dixit were considered one of the dark horses for the title,
but were put out on the opening day by Scotland's Chris
Small & Lyall Paterson 11-9 in the decider, a result that
the Scots were "over the moon" with.
Two other Scottish pairs progressed, also beating Indian
opposition.
The hosts got their own back in the women's though, as
Alnaka & Misra beat Kidd & Clark in the only match of the
day.
08 Mar, Day
ONE Results:
Mens Doubles round 1
Jamie Macaulay/ Stuart Crawford (Sco) bt Abhishek Pradhan/
Balamurgan(Ind) – 11-4,11-5
Harry Leitch/Alan Clyne(Sco) bt Vikas Jangra/Naresh
Kumar(Ind)
11-6,11-3
Chris Small/Lyall Paterson(Sco) bt Ravi Dixit /Ramit Tandon(
Ind)
10-11,11-5,11-9
Womens Doubles round 1
Anaka A./Surbhi Misra bt Claire Kidd/Alexandra Clark –
11-5,11-5
Mixed Doubles round 1
Stuart Crawford(Sco)Alexandra Clark bt Surbhi Misra/Parthiban(Ind)
11-7,11-7
Ivan Yuen(Mas)/Samantha Teran(Mex) bt Sandeep Jangra/
Anwesha Redy – 11-8,11-9
Harinder Sandhu/ Joshana Chinappa bt Harry Lietch/Lisa
Aitken (Sco)-
11-2,11-10
Chris Simpson/Jenny duncalf(Eng) bt Gaurav Nandrajog/Aparajitha-
11-7,11-10
Saurav Ghosal /Dipika Pallikal bt Lyall Paterson/ Claire
Kidd(Sco)
11-4,11-1
Alan Clyne/ Frania Gillen-Buchert (Sco) bt Balamurgan/ Anaka
.A –
11-4,11-6
It was a closely fought out encounter and the Indian duo
brought about their best efforts in raising their game to
greater levels mainly in the closing stages of the games.
The rivals were matching each other in the intial stages of
the games but the manner in which Ghosal and Dipika, who has
been showing great signs of improvement in her performance
clicked with better coordination and exhibited perfect
cohession in their handling of the situation in the closing
stages for winning the title at home.
