Anahat-Abhay pair takes bronze; Dipika-Harinder enter mixed doubles final

HANGZHOU: Indian mixed doubles squash pair of 15-year-old Anahat Singh and Abhay Singh on Wednesday suffered a 1-2 loss against Malaysian pair Aifa Binti Azman and Mohd Syafiq Kamal in the semifinal and settled with a bronze medal at the 19th Asian Games.

The Indians go down 11-8, 2-11, 9-11 against the Malaysians after giving a tough fight in the deciding game.

Earlier, the mixed team of Dipika Pallikal and Harinder Pal Singh sailed into the final with a 2-1 win over Lee Ya Ki and Wong Chi Him of Hong Kong.

Dipika and Harinder beat Lee and Wong 7-11, 11-7, 11-9 in the semifinal, advancing to the gold medal match. Notably, mixed doubles squash had made its debut at the Asian Games 2022.

In the first semifinal clash, Dipika and Harinder defeated Ka Yi Lee and Chi Him Wong 2-1, coming back from losing the first game to register a 7-11, 11-7, 11-9 win in the hard-fought encounter that lasted 38 minutes.

Dipika, who won two silver medals with the Indian women’s team in 2018 in Indonesia and 2014 in Incheon, Korea, has won the title in Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles at the World Doubles Championships while Harinder Pal has won a bronze medal in Mixed Doubles in the World Doubles Championships and was also part of the Indian team that defeated Pakistan in the final to win gold in Team competition in Hangzhou.

The experienced Indian duo went into the match with a lot of confidence. However, they found themselves 0-3 down and though they tried to fight back, the Hong Kong pair increased the lead to 5-1. The Indians cut it down to 4-6 but their rivals did not give them many chances and wrapped up the first game in 10 minutes, 11-7.

In the second game, the two teams stayed neck-and-neck till 3-3 after which the Indians won the next five points to open up an 8-3 gap. They went on to wrap up the game 11-7 in 10 minutes. In the third game, the two teams went neck-and-neck from 4-4 as they regularly levelled scores till 9-9 after which Dipika and Harinder won the next two points to win the game and match to secure themselves a berth in the final. IANS

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