The decrease in the height of the ‘tin’ at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games squash event made rallies faster and exciting, and Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal being attacking players themselves, it helped the Indian doubles pair to bag the historic gold medal.
The organisers had reduced the height to 13 inches — it is normally 17 inches for doubles — with the intention to make the sport more attractive.
Speaking to The Hindu after arriving in the city on Tuesday, Joshna and Dipika agreed that the reduction in height worked in their favour. “It wasn’t a shock to us as we were practising [at the ISA] with the reduced height, which rewards attacking players,” said Dipika while Joshna added, “it was easy to attack but difficult to pick up.”
Joshna said winning a medal for the country is always a great honour, and with squash not being part of the Olympics, “Commonwealth Games and Asian Games are huge in our careers.” Dipika said CWG was the “biggest multi-sport event in our country and winning gold is special.”
Ranked 21 in the world, Joshna said the competition in CWG was always tough. “Many top players, including Nicol David (world no.1), Laura Massaro (2), Alison Waters (6), Low Wee Wern (7) were there.”
On the biggest strengths of the pair, Joshna said: “Dipika has always been a great finisher of points while I normally set it up. It was not that I didn’t finish points. But I have to say that she (Dipika) finished points a lot more than I did.” Joshna observed that the opponents were unable to find a weak spot. “Nobody was the weak link. So, the opponents didn’t know whom to attack.”
Being great friends on and off the court and having practised and won titles together did help to a great extent. “Even for the last CWG in Delhi, we were supposed to pair up, but Dipika fell sick. In fact, we had won an international tournament in Manchester in the run-up to 2010 CWG and a title in the tri-nation series in Kuala Lumpur in June this year.”
On her part, Dipika, ranked 10 in the world, said, “We share a healthy relationship, and it’s also nice that we practised together (prior to CWG).”
While Joshna said she’ll concentrate on Malaysia and Hong Kong Open, Dipika said she will be preparing for the China Open and the Asian team championship.
