India's top squash player Dipika Pallikal pulled off a major upset in the $5,000 Australian Squash Open, defeating sixth seed Camille Serme 3-1 to storm into the quarterfinals of the event in Canberra on Thursday.
Pallikal, seeded 11th in the tournament, had to toil hard before scripting a come-from-behind victory against Serme at the National Convention Centre.
The 20-year-old from Chennai defeated the French woman 3-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-6 to book her berth in the last-eight stage.
Playing against Serme, Pallikal showed great skill and grit to beat her more experienced opponent. Quick off the blocks, Serme took the first game in no time but the Indian came back strongly and clinched a closely-fought second set.
Pallikal took the third set with an identical score line.
"I walked into the Australian Open really nervous as I had spent the summer training really hard with Rithwik in Mumbai, where we had worked very hard on different aspects of my game," she said.