Cairo, March 15: India's Joshna Chinappa put up a gritty fight before going down 11-7, 10-12, 11-2, 5-11, 8-11 to New Zealand's world No.5 Joelle King in the quarterfinals of the Professional Squash Association (PSA) World Tour Black Ball Open tournament.
At the Black Ball Sporting Club, the Indian ace was in good form and even had a 2-1 lead before King used all her experience to grind down her opponent.
Joshna had defeated England's No.1 Sarah-Jane Perry and eight-time world champion champion Nicol David en route to her majestic march into the quarterfinals, but King proved a tough nut to crack for her.
Despite the loss, Joshna was banking on the positives and hoped to bounce back quickly.
"Lost a tough battle against Joelle! Enjoyed my time here on court. Look forward to being back!," Joshna tweeted.
Lost a tough battle against Joelle! Enjoyed my time here on court @BlackBallSquash and in Cairo! Look forward to being back! pic.twitter.com/FWdBdosmfY
— Joshna Chinappa (@joshnachinappa) March 13, 2019
King, 30, played out a tight five-game battle after she recovered from going 1-2 down in the 64-minute encounter.
"You've got to hand it to Joshna," said King. "She has had an amazing tournament. She beat Nicol (David) 3-0, obviously beat SJ (Perry) and came out firing against me.
"It's just one of those wins when you are on the backend of someone playing really well and it took me a while to find my feet, but I think the pleasing thing is that I found a way to win.
"Those matches can be easy to tick off and think you've been outplayed, but I dug in and at least thought that if she is going to beat me then I'm going to make it really hard and it's nice to come off winning."
(With PSA inputs)