Dipika stuns top seed to enter semis

Dipika Pallikal stunned top seed Christina Mak of Hong Kong in straight games to storm into the semi-finals of the ICL Chennai Open Squash tournament on Friday.

The fifth seeded Indian beat her higher-ranked opponent 9-7, 9-5, 9-3 in 34 minutes.

Dipika next plays Orla Noom on Saturday. The third seeded Dutchwoman accounted for local hope Anwesha Reddy 3-9, 8-10, 9-5, 9-1, 9-2 in a tense quarter-final.

Meanwhile, second seed and national champion Joshna Chinappa also booked a last-four berth after a comfortable 9-2, 9-6, 9-2 win over sixth seeded Austrian Birgit Coufal.

Joshna will take on fourth seed Annie Au of Hong Kong, who outplayed unseeded Indian Harita Omprakash 9-2, 9-0, 9-1.

In the men's section, it was smooth sailing for the seeds with number one Saurav Ghosal and number two Ritwik Bhattacharya recording easy wins to advance to the semi-finals.

Ghosal, the national champion, beat eighth seed Welshman Bob Sutherland 11-8, 15-13, 11-5 to set up a clash with third seed Australian Ryan Cuskelly, who defeated number five Dick Lau of Hong Kong 11-9, 6-11, 11-9, 11-3.

Ritwik, on the other hand, eased past qualifier Harinder Pal Sandhu 11-8, 13-11, 11-8 to set up a clash with fourth seed Mohd Ali of Egypt.

Ali took just 15 minutes to get the better of seventh seed Hong Kong's Max Lee 11-4, 11-3, 11-7 in his quarter-final.