Dipika Pallikal goes down fighting at Australian Open

Dipika Pallikal fought her heart out but still fell short as she lost to world number four Laura Massaro in a gruelling five-game semifinal match of the Australian Open Gold series squash event on Saturday.

Canberra: Dipika Pallikal fought her heart out but still fell short as she lost to world number four Laura Massaro in a gruelling five-game semifinal match of the Australian Open Gold series squash event here today.

In one of the longest matches of the tournament, Dipika started slow, losing the first game 7-11, before winning the second and fourth games 11-7 and 11-3. In the keenly contested decider, Dipika and Laura were neck and neck but the English player eventually won the game and match 11-7, 7-11, 13-11, 3-11, 11-9. Dipika looked in good form through the closely fought semi-finals, making England`s more experienced Laura truly fight for every point. In her third appearance at the event, Dipika scripted history by becoming the first Indian to enter the last four stage in a Gold Series event. Currently training under renowned squash player Sarah Fitz-Gerald, Dipika reached her career-best ranking of world number 14 in February this year, which made her the highest ranked Indian squash player ever. The 20-year-old has already won the German Open, Dutch Open, French Open, Australian Open, Scottish Open on the European Junior Squash Circuit. PTI