Nagoya, Veteran Joshna Chinappa, playing a record seventh Asian Games, and Velavan Senthilkumar assured themselves of a medal in the mixed doubles squash event by progressing to the semifinals with a win over David Pelino and Jemyca Aribado of the Philippines here on Friday.
The Indians took less than half an hour to register a dominant 11-3 11-5 win in the quarterfinal.
They will take on Hong Kong's Yo Ka Lee and Ming Hong Tang in the semifinals on Saturday.
Deep Dive
What was the score of the mixed doubles squash quarterfinal match that Joshna Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar played?
Why is Joshna Chinappa's participation at the Asian Games significant?
How did Joshna Chinappa prepare for the Asian Games?
It will be the sixth Asian Games medal for 40-year-old Joshna. She already has a haul of two silver and three bronze medals at the continental event. She won a singles bronze in 2018 edition, a team silver each in 2014 and 2018, and team bronze each in 2010 and 2022.
Joshna, who is playing in her seventh successive Asian Games since the 2002 Busan edition, surpassed the earlier record of another Indian squash great Saurav Ghosal who retired last year after playing six times in the continental multi-sport event.
The Indian duo completely dominated the quarterfinal match at the Nagoya Kinjo Futo Arena Court Number 6 with their power and clinical display. The experienced Joshna and the 28-year-old Senthilkumar, both from Tamil Nadu, complemented each other.
{{/usCountry}}The Indian duo completely dominated the quarterfinal match at the Nagoya Kinjo Futo Arena Court Number 6 with their power and clinical display. The experienced Joshna and the 28-year-old Senthilkumar, both from Tamil Nadu, complemented each other.
{{/usCountry}}Joshna and Senthilkumar hardly broke a sweat to take the first game in nine minutes with the Philippines pair coming short in all departments of the game.
The Indians were 3-0 up quiet early and they made it 9-2 in no time. The Filipinos took a point after that but Joshna and Senthilkumar were in a hurry, as they took the next two points and take the first game 11-3.
The second game was a little bit tougher for the Indians as Pelino and Aribado tried a comeback after the Indians took a 3-0 lead. It was 4-2 midway in the second game, but that was the smallest gap the Philippines pair could muster.
Thereafter, Joshna and Senthilkumar stepped to another gear, moving to 7-2 and then 8-4, before winning the second game 11-5 in 10 minutes to seal the match.
"Winning a medal for your country is always very special. And that's been my motivation all my career," Joshna told PTI after the match.
On her preparations for the Asian Games, she said, "Well, I train abroad quite a bit. Like, I was in USA before the Asian Games. So I try to do it as much as I can.
"Otherwise, I train at the Indian Squash Academy in Chennai. I work with all the coaches there. And before the Asian Games, I was working with David Palmer in USA."
Senthilkumar, who is playing in his first Asian Games, said he and Joshna executed their pre-match plans to the 'T'.
"It was a very good match, we played aggressive from the start till the very end. We executed our plans perfectly and both of us played really well." he said.
"We have not player our opponents earlier, so we watched the videos of the matches they had played earlier and made our strategy."
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