Joshna Chinappa goes down fighting in Carol Weymuller Open semis

Indian top-20 player Joshna Chinappa bowed out of the semis after a loss to Kiwi player Joelle King

Joshna Chinappa’s impressive run at the $50,000 Carol Weymuller Open came to an end on Sunday as she bowed out to wildcard Joelle King of New Zealand in the semi-finals. The India No. 2, who had qualified for this event, took one game, but the former World No. 4 was too strong and won the match 11-4, 9-11, 11-4, 11-8.

Comeback for King after Achilles tendon rupture

The now 28^th-ranked King is currently on the comeback trail after rupturing her Achilles tendon in August last year. The 27-year-old had been slowly gaining in confidence and captured the Australian Open in August this year.

She continued her resurgence at the Carol Weymuller Open, ousting two top-12 players en route to the last-four stage. That helped her to get off to a fantastic start against Chinappa in the semis. With perfect placement of the ball and a brilliant short game, she kept troubling the Indian. Chinappa had no answers and she immediately went down 4-11.

But Chinappa has been having a great run of her own. Having won two titles this year and four matches in a row at this New York tournament, she refused to go down without a fight. The Indian national champion, who has climbed back into the top 20 in the latest rankings, stormed out of the blocks in the second game.

She was sharp, aggressive and quickly built a healthy lead of 6-1 and then 7-4 as King struggled to keep up with Chinappa’s pace. However, on reaching 10-5, the Indian suddenly looked vulnerable and made a few errors which re-energized King. She won four points on the trot to close in to 9-10 before Chinappa slammed that game shut at 11-9.

In the third game, the action shifted to the front court where the World No. 20 impressed with her short backhands. But the Kiwi player broke free from 4-4 and then went on a run of seven straight points to wrap up the game 11-4.

The fourth game began with fierce and speedy rallies where both players displayed great footwork and superb reflex action to pick up the shots. Again King was the one who surged ahead from 3-3 to build a 6-3 advantage. The former fourth-ranked player’s lightning speed and low shots had Chinappa on the ropes and the score stood at 8-4 in the Kiwi player’s favour.

However, Chinappa made one last push and moved the ball around smartly to throw King off. She succeeded to a certain extent and closed the gap to 8-9 from 5-9 down.

But, as the Indian missed one forehand at a crucial juncture, Joelle King had two match balls and she booked her place in the final immediately afterwards.

The other semi-final saw a big upset as fifth-seeded Egyptian teenager Nour El Sherbini stunned her compatriot and World No. 1 Raneem El Welily 11-13, 11-4, 11-9, 11-4.

Next up for Chinappa: US Open

The performance at the Carol Weymuller Open will stand Joshna Chinappa in good stead ahead of the prestigious $150,000 US Open, beginning October 8. Joshna starts her campaign against 9th seed Annie Au of Hong Kong.