India’s Joshna Chinappa beat former world number one Nicol David 11-8, 11-8, 11-8 in the second round of the El Gouna International squash tournament in El Gouna (Egypt) for her first ever win over the legendary Malaysian player.
Nicol David, an eight-time World champ and seeded eight in the tournament, started slowly and fell behind by two games quickly as the Indian attacked well.
The World No 14 then stormed into a 7-1 lead in the third and, despite a late fightback from her Malaysian opponent, held on to claim her first ever win over Nicol David in 32 minutes.
#Squash: A superb @joshnachinappa enters the quarter-finals @ElGounaSquash with a memorable 3-0 win (her first in fifteen attempts) over the 8th seed Nicol David of Malaysia. The 16th-seeded Chinappa had earlier defeated Rowan Elaraby of Egypt 3-1 in her opening match.
— Sameer Shirodkar (@SameerSh29) April 22, 2018
Having won a silver medal in the recent Commonwealth Games in Australia, she said she was aware that she had a tough opening round and a possible match against Nicol David and wanted to play freely.
“I don’t know how I did it,” Joshna was quoted as saying about her win on the PSA World Tour website.
“A few of us are just back from the Commonwealth Games, not just me, and that’s one of the challenges of being an professional athlete. I knew I had a tough first round, then Nicol in the pre-quarters, so I had no pressure, and I just wanted to play freely and enjoy myself.
“I think I played pretty well, most of my balls went in, but I was just thinking one point at a time. I didn’t come on court with any particular game plan, I just came to play, I didn’t think about the match before, just had a good night sleep, ate well, and came for my match,” she added.
A delighted national coach Cyrus Poncha praised Joshna for pulling off a maiden over Nicol and added it was a great day for Indian squash.
“Ever since the Commonwealth Games campaign, Joshna has been determined to sharpen her skills in the run-up to the Asian Games. This is a great day for Indian squash,” he added.
Joshna had started her campaign with a 8-11, 11-8, 14-12, 11-4 win over Egypt’s wild card entrant Rowan Reda Araby.
Dipika Pallikal Karthik, the other Indian in the fray, went down to Camille Serme of France 10-12, 7-11, 12-14 in the opening round.
UPDATE: In the last eight of the PSA World Series event, Joshna will meet England’s Laura Massaro, the fourth seed, who defeated Hong Kong’s Joey Chan.
(With PTI inputs)
