Birmingham: There will be a lot more at stake besides a medal if Scotland’s Greg Lobban and his teammate Lisa Aitken win their mixed doubles quarterfinal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
For, facing the squash player will be his wife Donna Lobban, who represents Australia, and she has vowed to get him to cook dinner for a month if he wins the match.
Donna and her cousin Cameron Pilley advanced to the quarterfinals after beating India’s Joshna Chinappa and Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu in straight games on Thursday. Greg and Lisa Aitken scored a similar straight games victory against Marlene West and Cameron Stafford of the Cayman Islands.
Now that they will be facing each other in court, Donna wants to place a bet to make it more interesting — at least for herself.
“I’m going to have to make a bet with him that if he wins, he has to cook dinner for a month,” Donna told the Games News Service. “There’s not much to lose for me there because I cook dinner most of the time anyway.”
The couple lives in Sheffield and trains at the city’s Hallamshire Tennis and Squash Club.
“We will be taking it very seriously,” Donna said. “It’s a pretty weird but cool experience.
“We haven’t ever played each other in a serious match, not even at the world doubles, so for it to take place for the first time on the biggest stage possible is pretty unbelievable.
“We will probably keep a little more distance tonight. We will stick with our teams and not talk too much.”
Husband Greg said: “I’m not sure how the experience is going to be. We are together on the court all the time. Mixed doubles is always great fun and we’ve got to treat it no differently than any other match.”
Well, besides proving to the Lobban couple who is a better squash player, the mixed doubles quarterfinal will also tell who is going to spend more time in the kitchen for the next month or so. It will definitely be a different experience for the couple.
–IANS