SQUASH – India Celebrate Historic Asian Championships Success

Kuwait City-Kuwait, May 08, 2012: RESULTS: Historic Asian, Asian Team Championships, Kuwait City, Kuwait

Men’s Final:

[4] PAKISTAN bt [1] INDIA 2/0

Farhan Mehboob bt Saurav Ghosal 10-12, 6-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-9 & Farhan Zaman bt Siddharth Suchde 11-7, 11-6, 11-13, 7-11, 11-9

Remaining final positions: 3 Kuwait & Malaysia, 5 Hong Kong China, 6 Japan, 7 Jordan, 8 Korea, 9 Iran, 10 Singapore, 11 Iraq, 12 China, 13 Sri Lanka, 14 Chinese Taipei, 15 Palestine

Women’s Final:

[3] INDIA bt [1] HONG KONG CHINA 2/0

Joshna Chinappa bt Joey Chan 11-3, 11-8, 5-11, 11-8 & Dipika Pallikal bt Annie Au 11-8, 12-10, 11-8

Remaining final positions: 3 Malaysia & Korea, 5 Japan, 6 China, 7 Sri Lanka, 8 Iran

India Celebrate Historic Asian Championships Success

India celebrated their first senior Asian squash title success following unexpected victory in the women’s event in the 2012 Asian Team Championships at the Salem Al-Sabah International Squash Complex in Kuwait.

The third seeds faced favourites and defending champions Hong Kong China. But after a four-game victory by Indian number two Joshna Chinappa over Joey Chan – ranked over 30 places above – top string Dipika Pallikal sealed India’s historic win by recording her career-first victory over Hong Kong’s world No6 Annie Au in straight games.

“It was a class act from Dipika,” exclaimed India’s National Coach Cyrus Poncha.

But India failed to make it a double in the men’s event where Pakistan successfully retained the title after beating the favourites 2/0 in the final.

It was a sensational comeback by the fourth seeds who suffered a shock 2/1 defeat to hosts Kuwait in the qualifying rounds – then battled back to overcome third seeds Hong Kong in the quarter-finals before seeing off Malaysia, the No2 seeds, in the semis.

In the final, Farhan Mehboob recovered from two games down to beat India’s world No25 Saurav Ghosal 10-12, 6-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-9 and Pakistan No2 Farhan Zaman also outplayed a higher-ranked opponent when he defeated Siddharth Suchde 11-7, 11-6, 11-13, 7-11, 11-9.