Two Singapore siblings. Two New Delhi-born opponents. An all-Indian quarter-final. One medal guaranteed.
Anahat Singh has bigger goals than that at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, but there were little hiccups at the start as India’s No.1 and No.2 squash players set up a women’s singles quarter-final by winning their Round of 16 clashes against the Singapore sisters on Thursday.
Tanvi Khanna played her part in that. Ranked 71st in the PSA charts, India’s second-highest ranked women’s player had to dig deep against Au Yeong Wai Yhann before winning 3-1 (5-11, 11-4, 11-5, 13-11). On another court around the same time, Anahat, India’s top medal hope and world No.17, breezed past Au Yeong Wai Lynn 11-4, 11-5, 11-7.
Yhann, a graduate in psychology from the University of the West of England, was Singapore’s first female squash pro to win a PSA Challenger title. The 27-year-old’s teenaged sister, Lynn, is a product of the Singapore Sports School and is just starting out at the PSA level.
Chasing her first individual medal at the Asian Games, third seed Anahat received a first-round bye. Tanvi had to come through by beating South Korea’s Kim Dami 3-0 in her opening round. The Indians will clash on Friday for a place in the semi-final, which assures a bronze.
Anahat, 18, and Tanvi, 30, have played each other multiple times on the national circuit before Anahat leaped to the elite PSA level. The two crossed paths earlier this year in the semi-finals of the JSW Indian Open, a PSA Copper event, in Mumbai, where Tanvi took a game off Anahat before losing 3-1.
India’s men’s singles hopefuls too had a good day as Abhay Singh and Veet Chotrani moved into the last eight. Abhay, the world No.26 seeded second in Japan, brushed aside Sri Lanka’s Ravindu Laksiri 3-0 (11-3, 11-5, 11-6) for another straight-games win. The 38th-ranked Veer was given a scare by Sanjay Jeeva, the world No.59 Malaysian, in a topsy-turvy contest where the Indian came through 3-2 (11-9, 8-11, 11-6, 15-17, 11-6).
Veer will battle with Pakistan’s Irfan Muhammad in the quarter-final on Friday, while Abhay will face Japan’s No.1 Ryunosuke Tsukue.
In mixed doubles, where India is defending a gold medal, the pair of Joshana Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar defeated the younger Indian combine of Shameena Riaz, daughter of India’s former hockey captain and two-time Asian Games medallist Mohammed Riaz, and Suraj Chand 2-0 (11-7, 11-10). Joshana, playing in her seventh Asian Games, and Velavan will take on The Philippines’ David Pelino and Jemyca Aribado for a place in the semi-finals.