Ace Indian squash player Joshna Chinappa outwitted New Zealand’s Kaitlyn Watts 3-1 to progress to the women’s singles quarterfinals at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Sunday (July 31).
The 18-time national champion kept her calm to recover from a mid-game slump, prevail 11-8, 9-11, 11-4 and 11-6 against Watts to set up a last-eight clash with Canada’s Hollie Naughton who beat Malaysia’s Aifa Azman 3-0 in another match.
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Looking for an elusive CWG gold medal, Chinappa was lagging 3-5 initially in the opening set but made it 8-8 before taking a 1-0 lead.
Watts, however, made a strong comeback in the second set as she zoomed to 5-1 and even though Joshna made it 9-9 at one stage, Watts managed to gather the last two points to keep herself afloat.
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Despite the reversal, Chinappa showed better nerves as she build up a 7-3 lead and quickly stepped ahead to make it 2-1.
(With inputs from agencies)