Pallikal-Ghosal win CWG warm-up tournament in Malaysia

India's leading squash players Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal enjoyed a fruitful warm up to the next month's Commonwealth Games by winning the mixed doubles title at the Tri-Nation invitational tournament here today.
Ghosal and Pallikal, who are busy playing singles on the professional tour, outsmarted the 2010 Commonwealth Games silver medallists Martin Knight and Joelle King in the final played at the National Squash Centre. The Indians came from behind to beat the New Zealand pair 9-11, 11-7, 11-5.
Teams from hosts Malaysia, India and New Zealand are competing in the three-day event.
The win comes at a good time for Ghosal and Pallikal, who remain India's best bet in both singles and doubles category at the Glasgow Games, beginning July 23.

"It defintiely gives us confidence going into the Commonwealth Games. There are things we need to work on and we have taken note of that. Seeing the other countries play was also a learning experience. All in all it was a good couple of days," Ghosal told PTI.
The World No.16 in singles along with Harinder Pal Sandhu finished third out of six teams in the men's doubles.

India can win another gold tomorrow when Pallikal and Joshana Chinappa face New Zealand's Joelle and Amanda Landers Murphy in the women's doubles.
Pallikal and Chinappa pulled off a remarkable 2-1 win over Malaysian heavyweights Nicol David and Low Wee Wern in the semifinals.

"It is good that we got this tournament. It shows where we stand in the doubles. We surely we have medal chances in the CWG. It was a hard match against Nicol and Low Wee Wern. We lost the first game and came back really strong in the remaining two," Pallikal said.
India had failed to win a medal at the New Delhi Games in 2010.