Dipika enters main draw of Chennai Open

India No. 2 Dipika Pallikal upset second seed Aisling Blake of Ireland in the final qualifying matches of the PSA and WISPA Chennai Open at the Indian Squash Academy, in Chennai.

India No. 2 Dipika Pallikal upset second seed Aisling Blake of Ireland in the final qualifying matches of the PSA and WISPA Chennai Open at the Indian Squash Academy, here on Wednesday.

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Having beating Blake 11-8, 11-6, 11-5 in 31 minutes, Pallikal has a tough task ahead as she has been drawn to meet world No.1 and top seed Nicol David of Malaysia in the main draw that starts on Thursday.

Wild card Joshna Chinappa, the top Indian star, is drawn to play Kasey Brown (7th seed) of Australia.

In the men’s final qualifying events, Gaurav Nandrajog (ranked 174) was the lone player among four Indians on view to bite the dust, going down to the highly-ranked Kristian Frost Oslesen (107) of Denmark 11-9, 9-11, 6-11, 8-11 in 73 minutes.

Playing on centre court, both Ritwik Bhattacharya and Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu did not have to exert themselves in making the main draw.