Joshna Chinappa stuns former World No 1 Nicol David in the 2nd round of El Gouna International squash tournament

Chennai: India’s top woman player 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. 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, a press note here said. [caption id=“attachment_1488531” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File picture of Joshna Chinappa. AFP[/caption] 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. “I don’t know how I did it,” Joshna was quoted as saying about her win on the PSA World Tour website. 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 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,” she added. Joshna will meet the winner of the match between England’s Laura Massaro or Hong Kong’s Joey Chan in the last eight of the PSA World Series event. 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.