CHENNAI: Anahat Singh will be the cynosure of all eyes at the Nagoya Kinjo-Futo Arena when she opens her quest to Asian Games gold, and a spot in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, in the women’s singles event beginning on September 23.
The teenager has enjoyed an incredible 2026 by winning the elusive World Junior Squash Championships in Canada late in July. She also became the first Indian to win a world level squash competition at the junior circuit. Earlier this year, she achieved her career-best World ranking of 18.
Her career has been on an upwards trajectory ever since she turned up for India at the Commonwealth Games as a 14-year-old in 2022. Now, the teenager has grown into one of the nation’s medal hopes ahead of the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya. She has been given a bye for her round of 32 tie. She will face either Anna Ugay of Uzbekistan or Wai Lynn Au Yeong of Singapore. Her growth has been a source of awe and inspiration for the country. Aged 18, she already has experience of playing in the Asian Games where she won bronze in the mixed doubles event with Abhay Singh in Hangzhou.
While India has seen the growth of Joshna Chinappa as a young teen to being one of the world’s best, Anahat’s growth trajectory has taken India’s foreign coach for the upcoming event and former world No 1 James Willstrop by surprise. In Chennai before leaving for Japan on Friday, he gave his assessment of her abilities and where she can improve. "Anahat’s got the instinct to go into the front and to hit accurately short, which I've very rarely seen the way she's doing it as good as she is. So, when she builds strength in her legs, strength in her body and becomes an older person, you can already see she's getting stronger, but give her a few more years. When she gets the physicality, it's going to be incredibly hard to beat. The girls are struggling with her now because of just the sheer instinct and attack,” he told select media on Thursday.
More than getting physically stronger, Willstrop believes she needs to understand rallies and be disciplined with her approach. “Once she gets the strength, be even more disciplined and understand how to construct rallies, it's going to be a real nightmare for the girls. She's a wonderful prospect,” he said, and goes on to call her ‘unusual.’
By unusual, he meant someone who sets apart from the others with her approach. “She attacks the front so clinically more often than the other girls. The other girls are constantly on edge. She can't always do that consistently at the highest level, like against Sivasangari Subramaniam, she wasn't able to do it there quite. But if she had two years of experience, strength, physical strength, strategic know-how, she's going to be able to crack that code,” he signed off.
‘Abhay in good shape’
In the men’s singles’ India’s medal hopes lie on the nation’s No 1 Abhay, who has had a slight niggle last month. He won the Tuanku Muhriz Trophy in Malaysia, a PSA Challenger event. Willstrop, with whom Abhay extensively works with, said he is in a ‘good place.’ “I was with him from the end of August into September. We've had two nice training blocks. He's trying to build up his physicality and his mentality and he's in good shape. He's there. He's had some matches. Last week, he lost to Dimitri Steinmann in Qatar, which would have been nice maybe had he won there,” he said.
