David loses in Games doubles

Malaysian squash superstar Nicol David. — AFP

Women’s squash singles champion Nicol David was beaten for the first time at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on Wednesday as she and women’s doubles partner Low Wee Wee lost 11-8, 11-5 in 17 minutes to Indian pair Dipika Pallikal and Joshana Chinappa.

David and Low had won their first match against Megan Craig and Kylie Lindsay of New Zealand on Tuesday but were outplayed by the fourth seeds, although victory on Wednesday evening against Sri Lankans Mihiliya Methsarani and Nadindhi Udangawa in their final pool match will ensure their safe passage into quarter-finals.

“The momentum was just on the other side today,” said Nicol. “You just know with the doubles is anyone’s game but we have to learn from this. We have to be really confident from the start.”

“The first game we just wanted to go with a solid plan of being aggressive,” said Pallikal. “There was no stopping us in the second as we played some good shots. Me and Joshanna have a lot of understanding with each other so that really helps, especially going on court confident.”

Squash doubles are a rarity especially in Britain with the Commonwealth Games one of the few chances players have of competing. Laura Massaro, the English woman who was singles runner-up, survived being hit in the face by a shot from Tesni Evans to beat the Welsh woman and Deon Saffery with partner Jenny Duncalf 11-10, 11-7. The top seeds are all but guaranteed a quarter-final place.

“We come together and practise before every Commonwealth Games,” said Massaro. “We were unexpectedly put together in Delhi due to an injury and we got the silver medal. So they kept us together. “It’s frantic in the doubles, difficult to find any space, but it’s fun at times. It’s frantic, hard-hitting. But it was good fun today.

“The shot from Tesni hit my goggles and hit the side of my face. I didn’t expect that and don’t even know how she did it. I didn’t expect the ball to cross court.”

One of the matches of the day came as third seeds Emma Beddoes and Alison Waters beat New Zealanders Joelle King and Amanda Landers-Murphy 8-11, 11-2, 11-8.

“The thing with doubles is that you are straight in there and it’s very fast paced.”