Here’s a good news from the Squash Team at Asian Games! Dipika Pallikal Karthik who is India’s top squash player wins the bronze medal for India in women’s single squash at the 18th Asian Games on Saturday.
Well, the 26-year-old who had lost her semi-final match to defending champion Nicol David of Malaysia, who is one of the most proficient players
Meanwhile, Dipika Pallikal Karthik became the first Indian to break into the top 10 in the PSA Women’s rankings
Breaking News: Squash | Dipika Pallikal loses 0-3 to Nicol David in Semis
India get Bronze Medal
Interestingly Dipika won Bronze in 2014 edition also; lost to same opponent in Semis #AsianGames2018 pic.twitter.com/NRBcxEhojx— India@AsianGames2018 (@India_AllSports) August 25, 2018
In the 1st semi-final, Dipika who had won a bronze in 2014 Asian Games, lost the match to former world number one (7-11, 9-11, 6-11).
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The Tamil Nadu girl led 5-2 and 4-1 in the first 2 games yet Nicole who has won the Asian Games singles titles 4 times earlier took away all the pride.
Dipika who had earlier won a bronze at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon said that playing against former world number 1, was not easy at all.
Dipika said, “She is experienced and knows how to handle every situation, thrown at her. She was world number one for 10 years for a reason.”
“I am happy I played well. It’s unfortunate that I was in top-half to play with Nicol,” she added.
Meanwhile, Deepika said that she has to forget about the loss and need to focus on winning gold in women’s team event.
She said, “We have a gold to achieve in the team event. you can’t think much about what has happened in the singles.”
It seems that Dipika is aiming to make a big comeback and achieve a bigger target.
“I think you have take positives out of it. I am only 26, I have few more Asian Games to go. Hopefully I welcome back strong,” she added.
As we all know that Nicol is 35 years old yet she is still going strong. Meanwhile, Dipika said it’s Nicol’s time and she needs to wait for her time to come.
She said, “Squash is about how fit you are, how much you enjoy the game. We can see she really enjoys the game.”
Further, she said, “This is only my third Asian Games. Let the older one win here and we will come back after four years and win.”
To those who don’t know, Dipika Pallikal Karthik is currently married to Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik. Though she has made India proud, we believe that Dipika will definitely win a Gold in next Asian games.
