Dipika, Joshna, Saurav lose in semis, settle for bronze in squash

Indian squash players Dipika Pallikal Karthik, Joshna Chinappa and Saurav Ghosal had to be content with bronze medals after losing to their respective opponents in the semifinals of the 18th Asian Games here today.

In the women's singles semifinals, Dipika lost to defending champion Nicol David of Malaysia while Joshna was shown the door by Malaysian Sivasangari Subramaniam of Malaysia.

Top seed Ghosal lost to Chung Ming Au of Hong Kong China 12-10 13-11 6-11 6-11 6-11 in the men's singles semifinals. Ghosal had won a silver in the men's singles in the 2014 Asian Games.

In the first women's semifinal, Dipika, who won a bronze in 2014 Asian Games, lost to the Malaysian stalwart and former world number one David 0-3 (7-11 9-11 6-11).

David has won the Asian Games singles titles four times earlier.

The Indian had beaten Japanese Kobayashi Misaki 3-0 in the quarterfinals.

Later in the day, Joshna failed to match up to the level of her 19-year-old opponent, losing 1-3 (10-12 6-11 11-9 7-11).

Both the losing semifinalists win a bronze and there is no bronze-medal play-off.