India’s highest ranked player Joshna Chinappa failed to cross the opening hurdle, going down to unseeded Donna Urquhart of Australia, to crash out of the prestigious British Open Squash here.
Seeded 14th, Joshna ran out of steam against Donna, who carved out a 12-10, 7-11, 11-9, 11-5 win over the Indian late last night.
The perils of taking a long break from the professional circuit, though not voluntary, hit the Indian hard and this became clear from the way the Australian tested her to the hilt.
National Champion Joshna was up to it for a while but soon lost out on stamina. The whole match lasted 40 minutes.
Another Indian, National Champion Saurav Ghosal is set to play his first round match against eighth seeded Mathieu Castagnet of France later tonight.
PTI