Mumbai: Over the last few days on the squash glass court of Bombay Gymkhana, Anahat Singh has waltzed past 17-year-old Egyptian Nadien Elhammamy whom she had previously lost to twice, 38-year-old compatriot Joshna Chinappa whom she grew up watching, and Hong Kong teen Helen Tang whom she beat in the final to win the JSW Indian Open on Friday.
The 17-year-old has managed to manoeuvre an extreme range of opponents in terms of age and stature to drive home one of her young career’s biggest titles and the second in as many weeks. The triumphs in Chennai and Mumbai have leapfrogged her to being the top-ranked woman in the country at 68th, and further underlined the promise that she carries.
Key checkpoints, though, will arrive in her progress journey over the next couple of years as she starts playing the bigger PSA events and facing stiffer opponents. When the range will get stronger instead of wider.
“This is one of the biggest tournaments I’ve won to date. And this will drive my rankings further, which will open up the opportunity to play a lot of the bigger tournaments,” Anahat said after beating Tang 3-0 (11-9, 11-5, 11-8).
That’s where, as her mentor Saurav Ghosal puts it, there’s a big difference being “60 in the world and 6 in the world”.
“That is a process which is going to take its time,” Ghosal said.
Anahat is still very young in that process. Ghosal’s presence in it as mentor, in the company of former pros Gregory Gaultier and Stephane Galifi as more full-time coaches, has come at the right time as she transitions fully from playing juniors to PSA events with an eye on the 2028 LA Olympics.
The teen found the initial step up from the juniors to PSA a bit challenging, but has increasingly found her feet while stamping a winning run over the last few months in the second rung Challenger events. The step up from competing in lower to bigger PSA tournaments and against older and stronger players will be as challenging. Playing Chinappa, the former top 10 in the final chapters of her career, gave her a little taste of that in Mumbai.
“I haven’t played with a lot of those top 20-50 players so far,” Anahat said. “That’s what will be important now — playing the bigger tournaments to understand where I am and my level is compared to the top 10. There’s a huge difference between top 50 and 40; every ranking in 10s matters. So playing those tournaments will be important, even if I lose in the first few rounds initially.”
Anahat has singled out medalling at the World Junior Championships in July as a big target for this season. As she continues to dabble in both juniors and seniors until next year, major technical improvements in her game will be looked at post the junior Worlds.
“We’re trying to get her to make the top 10, top 5. For that, there are things she needs to improve technically,” Ghosal, who was helping Anahat during her matches in Mumbai, said. “We don’t want to change too many things too soon, for it’ll be too much to process now. After the World Juniors cycle, we’ll do a bit more because we’ll have more time.”
Playing back-to-back tournaments in the last couple of weeks, Anahat admitted to feeling a bit tired coming into Friday’s final. The youngster doesn’t really have the luxury of an off season currently, but getting stronger physically will also be among the priorities over the next couple of years.
“That’s definitely something I’m working on now,” Anahat said. “Initially the coaches adviced me to not do too much gym, and that they really like the fact that I’m agile on court. So, I’m taking it slowly. Once my tournaments start to slow down a bit, I’m going to focus more on that.”
Ghosal too is happy taking it slow to take Anahat to where he believes she belongs. Tougher tests will await in that path.
“The good part is, she is still 17, so the body can take a lot more,” Ghosal said. “The matches too aren’t as brutal as what it’s going to be when she will be 20-21, playing against those top girls.”
Abhay loses final
In the men’s final, India No.2 Abhay Singh went down to Egypt’s Kareem El Torkey, ranked 10 spots below him, 3-1 (10-12, 4-11, 11-7, 10-12).
