16th Asian Squash Team Championship, Kuwait 1-5 May 2012

Indian girls beat Hong Kong to make history while in men’s, India loses to Pakistan.

Indian women created history by winning their maiden Asian title as they beat Hong Kong 2-0 in the final of the Asian Team Squash held at Kuwait from 1-5 May 2012. India, however, went down 0-2 to Pakistan in the men’s final.?The Indian quartet, Dipika Pallikal, Joshana Chinappa, Anaka Alankamony & Aparajitha Balamurukan had an outstanding week defeating China, Sri Lanka & Malaysia to top their pool. In the semi-finals they defeated Korea 2-0 and in the finals defeated top seeded Hong Kong 2-0.

The Indians seeded third, went into the final as underdogs with Dipika (World No. 14) set to take on Annie Au, who is currently ranked No. 6 in the World. Joshana (World No. 71), who is coming back from an injury layoff, had the formidable task of taking on World No. 16 Joey Chan. ??But Joshna, who opened the final tie for the Indians, went into the match all guns blazing, surprising Chan. The match went into four games but Joshna always had the upper hand in crucial rallies. ??Then Dipika came up with an outstanding effort against Au. Dipika played to a perfect game plan of basics with no-frills against her higher-ranked opponent.

Victory by the top two players ensured the title for India.

However, it was a mixed result for the Indians with the men’s team of Saurav Ghosal, Siddharth Suchde, Harinder Pal Sandhu and Mahesh Mangaonkar going down to Pakistan in the title clash.

Seeded one, the team defeated Singapore and Jordan in the pool stage, Jordan in the quarterfinal and Kuwait in the semi final. ??In the final, Siddharth began on the back foot against Zaman and came back from two games down to take the match to the decider where he narrowly missed out. While Saurav who took a 2-0 lead against Farahan Mehboob was unable to hold on to his lead also going down in the fifth game 11-9.

Overall it was an outstanding performance by the Indian contingent.

Victory by the women was the icing on the cake in addition to men’s silver-winning performance which result equaled the inaugural edition of the tournament held in 1981 in Karachi.

Women’s Results?Finals: India beat Hongkong 2-0

Joshna Chinappa beat Joey Chan 11-3, 11-8, 8-11, 11-8

Dipika Pallikal beat Annie Au 11-8, 12-10, 11-8

Semi-finals: India bt Korea 2-0

Anaka Alankmony bt Yang Yeon Soo 11-8, 8-11, 11-9,

11-2 ?Dipika Pallikal bt Song Sun Mi 11-7, 11-8, 11-2

Quarter-finals: India beat Malaysia 2-0

Joshna Chinappa bt Delia Arnold 8-11, 11-4, 11-5, 12-10

Anaka Alankmony bt Siti Munirah Josoh 11-6, 11-5, 11-4

Remaining final positions: 3 Malaysia & Korea, 5 Japan, 6 China, 7 Sri Lanka, 8 Iran

Men’s Results

Finals: Pakistan beat India 2-0

Farhan Zaman bt Siddharth Suchde 11-6, 11-7, 11-13, 7-11, 11-9

Farhan Mahboob bt Saurav Ghosal 11-7, 6-11, 7-11, 11-7, 11-9

Semi-finals: India bt Kuwait 2-0

Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu bt Salem Fayez Mohammed 12-10, 11-9, 11-7

Saurav Ghosal bt Abdullah Al Muzayen 12-10, 12-14, 11-9, 11-7

Quarter-finals: India beat Japan 3-0

Siddharth Suchde bt Yuta Fukui 11-4, 8-11, 11-8, 11-3

Saurav Ghosal bt Shinnosuke Tsukue 11-3, 11-6, 11-5

Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu bt Ryosei Kobayashi 11-1, 11-6.

Remaining final positions: 3 Kuwait & Malaysia, 5 Hong Kong China, 6 Japan, 7 Jordan, 8 Korea, 9 Iran, 10 Singapore, 11 Iraq, 12 China, 13 Sri Lanka, 14 Chinese Taipei, 15 Palestine