India dash M’sia’s hopes of defending women’s squash team gold

JAKARTA: The national women’s squash squad failed in their bid to retain the gold medal in the Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games after suffering a shocking 0-2 defeat to India in the semi-finals of the team event at the Gelora Bung Karno squash stadium here yesterday.

The result saw Malaysia having settle for the bronze medal. Based on the competition format, the losing semi-finallists automatically get a bronze medal.

In yesterday’s match, Malaysian squash queen, Datuk Nicol David who is the reigning Asian Games singles champion lost 10-12, 9-11, 11-6, 12-10 and 9-11 to India’s top player Joshna Chinappa in the first game.

The 2018 Malaysian Open champion, Low Wee Wern also faced the same fate when she was beaten by world number 19 Dipika Pallikal Karthik; 2–11, 9– 11 and 7–11 in the second match, thus ending Malaysia’s hopes of defending the gold medal they won in two-back-to-back editions -- 2010 in Guangzhou, China and 2014 in Incheon, South Korea.

For the record, the team event in both men and women was introduced for the first time in 2010 Asian Games.

Speaking to the Malaysian media after her match, Nicol said she was slightly disappointed with her performance today as this was the last time she was featuring in the quadrennial games, having made her debut in the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games.

“We just came very close and gave all our best but the Indian team came into the match with high confidence and put up a strong performance... Wee Wern also played very well in today’s match but luck was not our side.

“For me, winning one gold in the women’s singles and a bronze medal is something that I can be proud of. We came into the court not just to play a normal game but India played good squash,” the world number nine player added.

The other semi-finals tie featuring Hong Kong and Japan was also held yesterday.