Cleveland Classic: Joshna Chinappa, Dipika Pallikal progress
On a day of double delight for Indian squash, Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal won their opening rounds at the $50, 000 Cleveland Classic in the USA on Saturday. While Pallikal caused an upset by toppling the seventh seed Low Wee Wern 11-2, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9, Chinappa beat qualifier Georgina Stoker 3-11, 11-4, 11-8, 11-9 to make it through to the quarter-finals.
Dipika was coming off a semi-final appearance at the Granite Open just a few days back. She brought that confidence in her match against the former World No. 5 Low Wee Wern. The Malaysian had just returned to the Tour after a knee surgery and wasn’t in the best of form.
Pallikal capitalized on it to pull off a four-game win to progress into the quarter-finals where she will be squaring off against the Tournament of Champions runner-up Amanda Sobhy. The fourth seed won the Greenwich International recently and wouldn’t be easy for the Indian.
Sixth seed Chinappa was facing English qualifier Stoker who had been very impressive in the qualifying rounds and had accounted for two seeds. The win over Stoker set her up against the top seed and the reigning British Open champion Camille Serme of France in the last-eight stage.