Hard-fought win for Joshna Chinappa in Macau Open Qualifying

Joshna Chinappa earned a hard-fought victory in the first round win

Birthday girl Joshna Chinappa put up a display of sheer grit and stamina to register a first-round victory in the qualifying stages of the prestigious Macau Open – a $50k PSA event on Tuesday.

The 14-time Indian National Champion who celebrated her 29th birthday on 15th September, had to come back from two games down to outlast World No. 64 Vanessa Chu of Hong Kong 5-11, 9-11, 11-3, 11-7, 11-7 at the Centro de Bowling in Macau.

The 24th ranked Indian is in a rich vein of form lately, having won two of her last three international tournaments. Joshna’s last title came at the NSCI Open in Mumbai, as recently as 10 days back. The confidence surely helped her to roar back into contention when the chips were down in her Macau match.

Joshna has a tough battle at hand on Wednesday as she is up against the World No. 20 Egyptian Salma Hany Ibrahim in the final round of qualifying. Ibrahim, who is the top seed in qualifying, also did not have it easy in her Round 1. The Egyptian overcame Hong Kong player Lee Ka Yi 11-6, 8-11, 11-8, 11-6.

The recently-married World No. 17 Dipika Pallikal who is in the main draw, is the only other Indian at this tournament. Pallikal will begin her campaign against the top seed Laura Massaro of England on Thursday.

Meanwhile, defending champion Nicole David has withdrawn due to a calf injury.

About the author

Sudeshna is a veteran Indian Sports and International Tennis journalist as well as editor at Sportskeeda. She has an overall experience of over 10 years with top publications like The Bridge, Fox Sports Asia, and gained a keen interest in Indian sports since the 2002 Commonwealth and Asian Games when she was in school.

Sudeshna holds a Master's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. She attends tournaments regularly and being a highly experienced journalist, she ensures she only contacts the correct people from her network for the most authentic information to be put in her articles.

Sudeshna’s favorite Indian athlete is PV Sindhu owing to her big-tournament performances. She also admires Tennis legend Rafael Nadal for his resilience and has witnessed the Spaniard in action at the French Open, due to which, Roland Garros is her all-time favorite Grand Slam tournament.

Neeraj Chopra’s gold medal win at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics made a lasting impact on Sudeshna. She has also interviewed him along with Badminton star Chirag Shetty and several other sports personalities. She has done on-ground reporting on multiple ITF tournaments along with the Premier Badminton League, Asian Boxing Championships and the Davis Cup.

When not using her skills and years of experience in crafting compelling content, Sudeshna likes to read, watch movies and travel.

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Edited by Staff Editor