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After a decent campaign at the US Open, the Indian trio of Saurav Ghosal, Dipika Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa will now turn their attention to the second World Series event of the new season – the Qatar Classic, scheduled to be held at the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex in Doha from October 29 to November 6.
World No. 16 Saurav Ghosal will start his challenge against the 19th ranked Fares Dessouki of Egypt on Sunday evening. For the 29-year-old who won the Kolkata International at home last month, it will be the perfect opportunity to rebound from a tough opening round loss to eventual champion Gregory Gaultier at the US Open just a few days back.
Ghosal had lost his last meeting with the 21-year-old Dessouki at the 2014 US Open first round in a marathon five-game encounter and would surely look to reverse the result this time.
World No. 1 Mohamed Elshorbagy heads the field and the draw has seven of the world’s top 10 players including World No. 3 Gaultier who is potentially Ghosal’s second round opponent.
In the women’s draw, the Indian duo of Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal would like to continue from where they left at the US Open. While the 20th ranked Joshna upset the World No. 10 Annie Au in the first round, World No. 19 Dipika stunned the fifth-ranked Alison Waters to reach the quarter-finals.
That performance should come in handy for the Indian girls who can meet each other in the second round at the Qatar Classic. However, they need to overcome a pair of Egyptian players to make that meeting possible.
While 13th seeded Dipika squares off against the 25th ranked teenager Yathreb Adel, Joshna faces none other than the World No. 1 Raneem El Welily. Both the Indians have their matches scheduled on Saturday afternoon.
Apart from Raneem, this prestigious tournament has seven more top 10 players in the draw.
The qualifying rounds at this tournament are currently under way.
