Pallikal, Chinappa advance to women's doubles quarters

Gold Coast, Apr 11 (PTI) Defending champions Dipikal Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa advanced to the women's doubles quarterfinals at the Commonwealth Games here today.

Chinappa and Pallikal outclassed Malta's Dianne Kellas and Colette Sultana winning the tie in straight games 11-5 11-6.

Earlier, the third seeds started proceedings against Tesni Evans and Deon Saffery of Wales. They won the first game 11-8 but faltered in the second to lose it 7-11.

However, the duo used its experience to wrap up the match in style, winning the third game 11-8 in 10 minutes.

They had defeated Pakistan's Fazia Zafar and Madina Zafar in their first group stage match yesterday.

Pallikal and Chinappa topped the group by wining all three games.

"When you're playing doubles, the middle play is something you want to attack most often. But again you have to get your basics right first to do that," said Chinappa referring to their style of play.

In the mixed doubles draw, Chinappa and Harinder Pal Sandhu sailed past the Scottish pair of Lisa Aitken and Kevin Moran 11-10 11-8.

In the men's doubles, the 11th seeded duo of Vikram Malhotra and Ramit Tandon caused an upset beating the higher seeded Welsh pairing of Peter Creed and Joel Makin 11-7 8-11 11-10.

Asked about the comeback in the third game Malhotra said, I think we made the biggest mistake that someone can do in sport. We thought we crossed the finish line before we did. It got out of hand within a matter of minutes"