Dipika steals show: upsets Christina to sail into semis

CHENNAI, July 4 (UNI): India's rising star , Tamil Nadu's Dipika Pallikal pulled off a major upset playing flawless game to dispose off top seeded Christina Mak of Hong Kong in straight games 9-7, 9-5, 9-3 to set up a semi final clash against third seed Orla Noom of the Netherlands in the ICL Chennai Open PSA and WISPA Squash championship here today.

Deepika, ranked 58 in WISPA rankings, proved that she is made of sterner stuff not allowing Mak to get back into to the contest.

In another quarter final match, the top Indian woman playerJoshna Chinappa, ranked 36, outplayed Birgit Coufal 9-2, 9-6, 9-2.

In other matches, Noom had to pull off her best from two games down to beat a fighting Anwesha Reddy of India for whom it was her first career quarter final outing in any major event,3-9, 8-10, 9-5, 9-1, 9-2, while Au had an easy time against Haritha Omprakash, who is playing in an WISPA event for the first time, 9-2, 9-0, 9-1.

In the men's section, second seeded Ritwik Bhattacharya with a PSA ranking of 58, shook off a poor start to beat Harinderpal Singh Sandhu who stole the limelight in the first rond accounting for a higher ranked Pakistani player.

Ritwik won 11-8, 13-11, 11-8.

Top seed Saurav Ghosal (ranked 53) sailed to the semi finals without much difficulty beating Rob Sutherland of Wales 11-8, 15-3, 11-5.

Saurav will play Ryan Cuskelly of Australia, while Ritwick will take on Egypt's Mohd.

Ali Anwara Reda in the semi finals tomorrow.

In the match between Deepika and the favourite Mak, the Indian rose to a 7-2 lead with superb execution of back hand drops and fore hand flicks.

Then she never looked back to lead 1-0.

The second game was evenly matched as Mak too decided to be rooted to back court, looking for Deepika to err.

However, Deepika benefitted from two 'strokes' awarded in her favour to win the second game too.

Being under pressure, Mak, though bringing about her best in patches, committed unforced errors often and allowed Deepika to coast ahead 5-0.

The Indian then benefitted further from on an error prone Mak's successive tin shots to win the game and the match.

Results-Men (Quarter finals): Saurav Ghosal (Ind) bt Rob Sutherland (Wal) 11-8, 15-13, 11-5 Ryan Cuskelly (Aus) bt Dick Lau (Hkg) 11-9, 6-11, 11-9, 11-3 Mohd.

Ali Anwar Reda (Egy) bt Max Lee (Hkg) 11-4, 11-3, 11-7 Ritwik Bhattacharya (Ind) bt Harinder Pal Singh (Ind) 11-8, 13-11, 11-8.

Women: Deepika Pallikal (Ind) bt Christina Mak (Hkg) 9-7, 9-5 9-3 Orla Noom (Ned) bt Anwesha Reddy (Ind) 3-9 8-10, 9-5, 9-1, 9-2 Annie Au (Hkg) bt Harita Ompakash (Ind) 9-2, 9-0, 9-1 Joshna Chinappa bt Birgit Coufal (Aut) 9-2, 9-6, 9-2 Semifinal line-up: Men: Saurav Ghosal vs Ryan Cuskelly, Mohd.

Ali Anwar Reda vs Ritwik Bhattacharya.

Women: Dipika Pallikal vs Orla Noom; Joshna Chinappa vs Annie Au.

Williams play seventh grand slam final LONDON, Jul 4 (Reuters): An all Williams grand slam final looms at Wimbledon tomorrow for the first time since the 2005 US Open and with it the question of how motivated and keen one sister is to beat the other.

The final on Centre Court (1830 ist at the All England Club has the potential to be great with both Williams sisters, holder and four times champion Venus and twice winner Serena, in excellent form.

The sisters, with seventh seed Venus, at 28 older by 15 months than the sixth-seeded Serena, insist that throughout their parallel careers each has always done her utmost to outdo the other.

Serena said sibling rivalry motivated her to want everything her sister had achieved and more when she spoke after her semi-final victory over Zheng Jie of China yesterday.

Venus was more vehement when she said after beating Russian Elena Dementieva, that she found suggestions that there might be a family agreement on the outcome of their matches offensive and an insult to her professionalism.

Dementieva was quoted as saying the outcome would be a family decision, no doubt meaning it would be settled within the family because a Williams would win come what may.

However, Dementieva said she would find it hard to play against a family member.

The sisters do not celebrate their victories over the other, particularly grand slam finals, with the euphoria players normally display at the moment of winning one of the biggest prizes in sport.

But if their rivalry is as strong as it has been over the 10 years since they first clashed at the 1998 Australian Open, a second round victory for Venus, the crowd can expect a highly competitive match.

Serena has won more grand slams, eight to Venus's six, but the older sister is going for her fifth Wimbledon title in her seventh final to Serena's third in four.

The younger sister won the finals between the two at Wimbledon with victories over Venus in 2002 and 2003, relinquishing her crown to Maria Sharapova in the 2004 final.

All told, Serena has the edge at 8-7 in all their meetings, having won five of their six grand slam finals and her greater power may be the decisive factor.

Both are serving well, particularly Serena, in games that do not differ greatly with both keen to come forward and volley whenever the opportunity presents itself.

They put their rivalry aside today, though, to win a women's doubles semi-final as they seek to add to the two Wimbledon titles they won together in 2000 and 2002.

Rashid wins Lalit Suri Northern India Golf Championship NEW DELHI, Jul 4 (UNI): Saved by a 6-shot cushion, Rashid Khan emerged champion overcoming a fighting Chikkarangappa in the the Lalit Suri Northern India Junior Sub-Junior Golf Championship here today.

Rashid with a final round of 1-under 71 finished with a 4-day aggregate of 4-under 284 to complete back to back victories after his win at the DGC last week.

The Delhi lad, who began the day with a five-stroke advantage, faced a stiff challenge right from the word go when Chikkarangappa went on a birdie spree making three of them in the first four holes.

In the wake of an attacking mode adopted by the 15-year-old, Chikka also made a bogey in between (3rd and 8th).

Meanwhile, Rashid adopted a cautious approach at least on the front nine and grabbed the opportunity to save a stroke whenever he struck one.

The 17-year-old made birdies on the 2nd, fourth, 7th and 8th while making a solitary bogey on the sixth to take the turn at 3-under.

"I am thrilled to win back to back titles," said an excited Rashid.

"Chikka played well but I was determined to win.

Excepting the last two holes, everything about my game was working quite well," said the champion.

Bangalore lad Chikkarangappa who submitted the day's best card of 69 had to be content with the second place.

However, he has the solace of winning the Category 'B' title.

Vicky Sharma finished third at 295 while Kanishk Madan was fourth at 297.

Trishul Chinnappa (Cat B) was fifth overall at 302 while Ankur Chadda and Kapil Kumar shared the sixth position at 306.

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