Joelle King’s defence of the Commonwealth Games women’s doubles squash title she won with Jaclyn Hawkes is over after she and new partner Amanda Landers-Murphy were beaten by Indians Joshana Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal 11-9, 11-5.
The New Zealander, who earned a bronze medal in the singles, missed out on another medal but Chinappa and Pallikal look in good form as the tournament reaches its closing stages.
The Indians will play second seeds Kasey Brown and Rachael Grinham in the semi-finals on Friday and after beating Malaysian singles winner Nicol David and partner Low Wee Wern, who have now exited the competition, are in fine spirits.
“The first game was very crucial for us,” said Pallikal.
“We had a bit of a slow start. We really wanted to win the first game no matter what happened so I’m glad that we pushed through. We played some incredible squash today and hopefully we can carry it on the whole tournament.
“Coming on court for the Commonwealth Games on such a big platform and playing Joelle who’s a gold medallist we were a bit nervous to start off with. Once we got going we knew we had a really strong game. We had a lot of confidence.”
King had to play back to back matches but at least could celebrate a place in the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles when she helped Martin Knight to victory over Malaysians Valentino Bong and Rachel Arnold 11-1, 11-6.
“You know that when you’re in these events that you have matches back-to-back on the same day,” she said.
“Even if you’ve lost you know you’ve just got to move on. You’ve still got another partner and the rest of the team to play for. I think we’re both quite good at putting what’s happened behind us and just moving on.”
England are guaranteed at least a silver medal in the women’s doubles after victory for Emma Beddoes and Alison Waters over David and Low 11-10, 11-8 set up a semi-final match with compatriots Laura Massaro and Jenny Duncalf.
“We did well to come back from a game ball down to win it on sudden death,” said Beddoes.
“The brilliant thing is we’re here with Team England and every day we see people bring home medals. We’re doing really well as a team so we know as a team if we’re bringing back medals that is great.”
The English will also fancy their chances in the men’s doubles after the quarter-finals were decided on Thursday.
The top ranked Adrian Grant and Nick Matthew and third seeds Daryl Selby and James Willstrop both made it through to the last eight as did Australian second seeds David Palmer and Cameron Pilley, the former coming out of retirement aged 38.
Matthew later renewed his call for squash to be admitted to the Olympics after a TV audience of one million viewers in the UK watched his singles win over James Willstrop on Monday.
“If it doesn’t help propel squash, what else do we need to do? Acrobats? Swing from the rafters and play our shots or what?,” said Matthew.
“We’ve already done everything so that’s the final cherry on top, it’s a sport that can’t do any more because we’re trying our best. Hopefully someone will finally take notice, it’s very frustrating.”