Pallikal-Ghosal advance to semis, Chinappa-Sandhu crash out

The Indian duo of Dipika Pallikal and Saurav Ghosal advanced to the semifinals of the squash mixed double's event even as compatriots Joshna Chinappa and Harinder Pal Sandhu crashed out of the Commonwealth Games here today.

The fifth seeded pair, who had a shaky pre-quarterfinal match against a Malaysian duo, was in terrific touch in the quarterfinal match against third seed Tesni Evans and Peter Creed of Wales.

The match witnessed a surfeit of rallies and eventually it was the skill in finding the corners and nick that mattered. Both Saurav and Dipika never left anything to chance and played with a lot of confidence to script a 11-8, 11-10 win and stun the fancied opponents.

They will face top seeds Joelle King and Paul Coll of New Zealand in the semifinals tomorrow.

Coll and King ousted the other pairing of Chinappa and Sandhu and even their best efforts could not help the Indians against the Kiwis.

To say that the New Zealanders managed to scrape through would be right, as the match could not have gone closer with the final score reading 11-10 11-10 in favour of Coll and King.

Vikram Malhotra and Ramit Tandon continued their good work with a solid win over the Jamaican pair of Christopher Binnie and Lewis Walters 11-4 11-10 for a place in the men's doubles quarterfinals.

The Indian pair had got a walkover from Sierra Leone's Ernest Jombla and Yusif Mansaray in their last pool match.

Malhotra and Tandon will next face the fourth seeded pairing of England's James Declan and Willstrop James in the quarterfinals tomorrow.