Dipika Pallikal beat former World No.1 Rachael Grinham 12-10, 5-11, 11-7, 11-9 to win the Macau Squash Open on Sunday — for her seventh professional career title.
In terms of seeding, this was not an upset, for Dipika was third seed and Grinham fourth. But the Australian is no pushover, and it required tight and intelligent play for the Indian to emerge victorious, according to Sarah Fitzerald, who has been guiding and training Dipika of late.
Having beaten Rachael’s sister Natalie, who was the top seed, in the semifinal, Dipika completed a wonderful week by winning the silver event in the WSA calendar — a rarity for an Indian.
“Both the wins against strong tacticians and excellent movers should do Dipika a world of good as she heads to Shanghai for her next assignment next week,” Fitzerald said in a message.
In the men’s section, Saurav Ghosal failed to get past top seed and eventual title-winner Omar Masaad of Egypt losing 11-8, 9-11, 11-8, 11-7 in an eventful semifinal encounter.
The scoreline does not quite reflect the fight Ghosal put up, even returning from an injury break to keep testing the Egyptian right through. It took Massad nearly one and a half hours to put down Ghosal.
