Joshna Chinappa is Asian champion, Max Lee takes men's title

Joshna Chinappa became the first player from India to win the senior title
Max Lee (L) and Joshna Chinappa (R)
Max Lee (L) and Joshna Chinappa (R)

Once a junior Asian champion, Joshna Chinappa became the first player from India to win the senior title when she beat Dipika Pallikal Karthik over an intensely fought five game final in the Jio-19th Asian Individual Squash Championship here on Sunday. The game scores of 13-15, 12-10, 11-13, 11-4, 11-4 portrays in a way the closeness of this 78 minute battle for the coveted honour.

Earlier in the men's final, top seed Max Lee of Hong Kong kept his tryst with glory, winning his maiden title beating India's Saurav Ghosal, the second seed 5-11, 11-4, 11-8, 11-7 (62 min) in a match where the Indian's enterprise was effectively shut out after a promising start.

However the women's contest had a lot of drama. Having lost to Dipika in April last year in the national championship final, Joshna was tense but the second seed kept a tight leach on her friend and rival and that in the end helped her reap the biggest reward that an Indian has achieved in international squash in recent times. It was not a case of Dipika playing second fiddle. She had her moments, made the best of that but the fluency that one would associate with there came only in patches. In particular her movements lacked the sharpness and that somewhat curbed her progress. Nonetheless trading two games each, with the earlier games going to extra points and to tantalising lengths, it seemed anybody's match. Then as luck would have it, Dipika had a slip and fall in the deciding game, which made her take a short injury break. By then it must be said, her fight had begun to fizzle out and Joshna was right there to give the final touches for her proud moment.

As per the rankings, Lee at 16 had the advantage of being fourteen rungs ahead of Ghosal. But there was this little statistics of their meetings which showed Lee had won only once in their eight meetings. But that sole win was in their last and recent meeting and so to that extent, Lee seemed a player in touch. However all that went into the background when play started with Ghosal looking to dictate terms. The swift movements, which has been Ghosal's forte, helped him take the initiative. Lee in comparison looked a man not in a hurry, rather waiting to make his intentions clear. By then Ghosal had grabbed the first game. The trend stopped there. Lee, with a better reach and lot more consistent in his shot selection found the way to check Ghosal. The deep lobs and the backhand drops began to work for the Hong Kong player and the Indian began to feel pressure. Not just that, points kept slipping away. If anything Lee only kept improving with every point as his lazy but effective stroke-play often presented that delicate touch for winners. Ghosal's frustration grew and all his plans went awry.

Mr N. Ramachandran, President IOA and Patron SRFI , Mr Debendranath Sarangi, Vice President ASF and President, SRFI and Mr Neeraj Ambani, President Group Logistics, Reliance Industries gave away the medals to the winners. Later Mr Sarangi gave away the ASF awards announced a few days ago.Of interest for India was National Cyrus Poncha getting the Coach of the Year award. 

Men:

Gold - Max Lee (HongKong)
Silver - Saurav Ghosal (Ind)
Bronze - Mohd Nafizwan (Mal) and Leo Au (HK)
 

Women:

Gold - Joshna Chinappa (Ind)
Silver - Dipika Pallikal Karthik
Bronze - Annie Au (Hk) and Tong Tsz Wing (HK)

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