Joshana Chinappa on Saturday registered one of the biggest upsets of the PSA World Tour season as she stunned World No 1 Raneem El Welily of Egypt in the first round of the Qatar Classic Squash Championship here
Joshana Chinappa during the NSCI Open in Mumbai last month
Doha: Joshana Chinappa on Saturday registered one of the biggest upsets of the PSA World Tour season as she stunned World No 1 Raneem El Welily of Egypt in the first round of the Qatar Classic Squash Championship here.
Joshana Chinappa during the NSCI Open in Mumbai last month. Pic/Suresh KK
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The Indian national champion, ranked World No 20, took just 37 minutes to outplay the top seeded Egyptian 11-9, 11-6, 4-11, 11-9.
Dipika Pallikal loses
However, it was curtains for Dipika Pallikal, seeded 13th, as she went down 5-11, 7-11, 7-11 in only 26 minutes to another Egyptian Yathreb Adel, who will now face Joshana in the second round to the tournament.
Joshana, who had defeated World No 10 Annie Au in straight games at the Delaware Investments US Open just two weeks ago, came into the second PSA World Series tournament of the season in form and shot out of the blocks to establish an early two-game lead over an out-of-sorts El Welily.
The 26-year-old from Alexandria's performance was littered with errors as she struggled to find any consistency.
A costly error on 9-8 in the fourth game, when she was on course to level the match, allowed Joshana back into the game and the 29-year-old Indian pounced, taking the next two points, and the match, to record one of the biggest victories of her career.
"This is by far the best win of my career, it doesn't get any better than beating the player at the top of the world rankings," said Joshana.
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