Sandhu-Chinappa pair loses in mixed-doubles
2 Aug 2014 5:48 AM IST
Indian duo of Harinder Pal Sandhu and Joshana Chinappa lost a hard-fought battle against the second-seeded New Zealand pair of Martin Knight and Joelle King in the mixed-doubles quarter-finals of squash on Friday.
In a see-saw battle, the 10th-seeded pair of Sandhu and Joshana failed to hold their nerve in the third and final game as the duo lost 11-7 8-11 6-11 to dash India’s hopes of adding a medal to their tally.
Termed as one of the most well-played squash matches in this edition of the Commonwealth Games, Sandhu and Joshana did not play bad squash but their opponents were just better on the day. Earlier Sandhu had also lost in the men’s doubles pre-quarterfinals with Sourav Ghosal.
India still hold on to their fifth spot in the medals tally with 13 gold, 20 silver and 15 bronze in the 20th edition of the CWG. On losing 2-1 after being 1-0 up in the first game, Sandhu said, ‘We just kind of gave up the lead after winning the first game. We put them under a lot of pressure, but in the second game we went for the short shots too early and that’s why they got the four points lead early on.’
He said he was disappointed, especially for failing to win it despite leading initially. ‘Yeah I am (very disappointed), because we had them after winning the first game. We just needed one more game to finish it off. We shot too often instead of just hanging in there and putting them under pressure and pinning them at the back.’
On almost smashing his racquet into the court at surrendering the final match ball point, he said, ‘Yeah, (I nearly did) because it was the last thing and you do not want to give it easily to your opponents. You want to make them win it. I had him and I just had to put the ball a third of an inch above the tin. So I am very disappointed with that.’
In a see-saw battle, the 10th-seeded pair of Sandhu and Joshana failed to hold their nerve in the third and final game as the duo lost 11-7 8-11 6-11 to dash India’s hopes of adding a medal to their tally.
Termed as one of the most well-played squash matches in this edition of the Commonwealth Games, Sandhu and Joshana did not play bad squash but their opponents were just better on the day. Earlier Sandhu had also lost in the men’s doubles pre-quarterfinals with Sourav Ghosal.
India still hold on to their fifth spot in the medals tally with 13 gold, 20 silver and 15 bronze in the 20th edition of the CWG. On losing 2-1 after being 1-0 up in the first game, Sandhu said, ‘We just kind of gave up the lead after winning the first game. We put them under a lot of pressure, but in the second game we went for the short shots too early and that’s why they got the four points lead early on.’
He said he was disappointed, especially for failing to win it despite leading initially. ‘Yeah I am (very disappointed), because we had them after winning the first game. We just needed one more game to finish it off. We shot too often instead of just hanging in there and putting them under pressure and pinning them at the back.’
On almost smashing his racquet into the court at surrendering the final match ball point, he said, ‘Yeah, (I nearly did) because it was the last thing and you do not want to give it easily to your opponents. You want to make them win it. I had him and I just had to put the ball a third of an inch above the tin. So I am very disappointed with that.’
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