CHENNAI: A few years ago, Velavan Senthilkumar had the world at his feet. He won the Asian junior title in 2016, and followed that up with British Junior Open in 2017, becoming the only Indian to win both.
A scholarship from Columbia University came calling for the squash player, and things looked very bright. But his shift from junior to senior circuit has not exactly gone as per plan. On Sunday, he went down to Ryosei Kobayashi of Japan (11-3, 11-4, 11-9) in the second leg of HCL-SRFI Indian Tour. While the performance was partly due to an injury, Velavan has been struggling for a while.
Studying statistics has been his dream, and the 21-year-old was excited to do that and play squash for Columbia University. But unlike many others who have chosen this path, the Salem-born was unable to balance academics and squash. Such was the work load that he even had to change his course.
“I am not happy with my performances. It’s been two, three years as a senior. I have been struggling with my academics. I was doing statistics at first. Now I have shifted to psychology. With statistics, I had a lot of assignments. I used to stay up till 3 in the morning, and train at 8. Compared to that, the work load is less now. I wish I could still continue with statistics since I am interested in it. But it takes up a lot if time, and I won’t be able to concentrate on squash.”
While squash is still his first love, Velavan has already juggled a lot of things. The youngster said that all these are just back-up options. Based in India since May, Velavan lost to Vikram Malhotra in the final of the first leg of the tour (in Noida). In between, after statistics and psychology, Velavan went to Paris for a small course in fashion business.
“I am just trying to figure out what’s best for me. I went to Paris because my dad has a garment-export business. These are all back-ups in a worst-case scenario like an injury or something.”
During his time in US, Velavan managed to win a 5K PSA event in Wisconsin. But that was it. While he did play for the university team throughout, it did not help him as a pro. To increase ranking points, players have to keep featuring in the professional circuit. That remains Velavan’s target.
To do that, he is planning to train in Spain. His fitness levels have dropped drastically and addressing that is his secondary goal. Velavan also plans on attending the third leg of this meet, if time permits.
“I am going to Barcelona for the next year. Then I will head to New York. This is like my gap-year. So it won’t affect academics. I will be practising at Barcelona Global Squash Academy. Victor Montserrat will be guiding me there. There are a lot of great players training there. That will help. I chose the academy because of the reviews. My brother Guhan went there, and a lot of players have spoken good about the place.”