Josh finishes runner-up

Hong Kong, May 28: Ace Indian racqueteer Josh Chippa failed to bag the 12th Professiol Squash Association (PSA) title after going down 9-11, 9-11, 11-9, 8-11 to New Zealand’s Joelle King in the hard-fought summit clash of the HKFC Intertiol here on Saturday.

Top seed King turned out to be India’s nemesis as she had earlier ended sixth seed Dipika Pallikal’s campaign in the quarter-fil of the $25,000 event.

World No.13 Josh had raised big hopes after upsetting the second seed and defending champion Annie Au in the semi-fils.

Saturday’s fil turned out to be a il-biting affair as both the South Asian Games (SAG) champion and King got off to strong starts before the Kiwi maged a rrow 11-9 lead in the first two games. In the third game, the Indian third seed pulled off a brilliant comeback to pocket it 11-9 with some brilliant angular backhands only to go down fighting in the fil game 8-11.

This was Josh’s first PSA fil since winning the NSCI Open in September.

Earlier, Dipika and Mahesh Mangaonkar had bowed out from this tourment. Last year’s men’s runner-up Saurav Ghosal had to pull out as he is recovering from a right foot injury. IANS