Indian ace Dipika Palikal on Wednesday spanked second seed Aisling Blake of Ireland 3-0 in the final qualifying match to set up a clash with World No 1 and top seed Nicol David in the main draw of the WISPA Chennai Open starting on Thursday.
In the PSA Chennai Open held concurrently to celebrate the ten years of existence of the Indian Squash Academy, three of the four Indian men entered the main draw.
Having won in straight games against Blake 11-8, 11-6, 11-5 in 31 minutes, Palikal would be ruing her luck as she faces a daunting task of taming the top seed David on Thursday.
Wild card entrant Joshna Chinappa will play seventh seed Kasey Brown of Australia.
In the men's final qualifying events, Gaurav Nandrajog (ranked 174) was the lone Indian to bite the dust going down fighting to higher-ranked Kristian Frost Oslesen of Denmark 11-9, 9-11, 6-11, 8-11 in a 73-minute match.
Among others, Ritwik Bhattacharya and Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu did not exert themselves much and advanced to the main draw, while Siddharth Suchde had an easy time against his compatriot Vikas Jangra 11-7, 11-1, 11-5.
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