Saurav, Dipika, Joshna reach squash singles semis

Squash stars Saurav Ghosal, Dipika Pallikal Karthik and Joshna Chinappa registered convincing victories to assure India of a medal each as they entered the semi-finals of the men's and women's singles matches respectively at the 18th Asian Games here on Friday.

Ghosal defeated compatriot Harinder Sandhu 3-1 (9-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-7). Ghosal, a three-time Asian Games singles medallist, will now take on Leo Au of Hong Kong in the semi-finals.

In the other semi-finals, Malaysian Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan will meet Max Lee of Hong Kong.

Joshna got the better of Joey-Chan Ho-ling of Hong Kong 3-1 (11-5, 12-10, 5-11, 12-10) in the late game to also assure herself a medal.

In the semi-finals, Joshna will meet Malaysian young talent Sivasangari Subramaniam, who got past Annie Au of Hong Kong.

Earlier, Dipika stormed past Japan's Misaki Kobayashi 3-0 (11-5, 11-6, 11-8) in a resounding fashion to ensure a top-four berth as well.

Dipika will face three-time defending champion and Malaysian great Nicol David for a place in the final.

Nicol defeated Japanese Satomi Watanabe 3-0 (11-6, 11-4, 11-3) to move into the semi-finals of the Asian Games for the sixth time.

Saurav and Dipika had claimed a silver and bronze in the singles at the 2014 Incheon Games. Three medals in the singles squash event in an edition will happen for the first time for India.

It will be the first individual medal for Joshna at the Asian Games. She was part of bronze and silver medal winning teams in 2010 and 2014.

--IANS

dm-pur/sed