Joshna-Senthilkumar, Anahat, Abhay lead Indian squash’s medal surge at Asian Games

Indian squash players secured three medals at the Asian Games after Joshna Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar reached the mixed doubles semifinals, while Anahat Singh and Abhay Singh advanced in singles. Joshna secured her sixth Asian Games medal, extending her record appearance tally

Nagoya: Indian squash players assured themselves of three medals as Joshna Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar entered the mixed doubles semifinals, while Anahat Singh and Abhay Singh advanced to the last four in singles event at the Asian Games here on Friday.

Joshna, playing in a record seventh Asian Games, and Senthilkumar began the winning spree with an 11-3, 11-5 victory over the Philippines’ David Pelino and Jemyca Aribado in the mixed doubles quarterfinals.

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Junior world champion and medal favourite Anahat breezed past compatriot Tanvi Khanna 11-2, 11-5, 11-3 in the women’s singles quarterfinals to stay on course for a coveted Olympic berth.

Abhay, meanwhile, dispatched local favourite Ryonosuke Tsukue 11-4, 11-3, 11-6 to set up a semifinal clash with Pakistan’s Irfan Muhammad, who got the better of Veer Chotrani.

Chotrani squandered a one-game lead to go down 11-6, 8-11, 3-11, 3-11 to the Pakistani in 41 minutes.

The men’s and women’s singles gold winners will directly qualify for 2028 Los Angeles Olympics where squash is set to make its debut.

Joshna’s sixth Asian Games medal

Joshna and Senthilkumar took less than half an hour to register a dominant win in the quarterfinal.

They will take on Hong Kong’s Yo Ka Lee and Ming Hong Tang in the semifinals on Saturday.

It is the sixth Asian Games medal for 40-year-old Joshna. She already has a haul of two silver and three bronze medals at the continental event. She won a singles bronze in 2018 edition, a team silver each in 2014 and 2018, and team bronze each in 2010 and 2022.

Joshna, who is playing in her seventh successive Asian Games since the 2002 Busan edition, surpassed the earlier record of another Indian squash great Saurav Ghosal who retired last year after playing six times in the continental multi-sport event.

The Indian duo completely dominated the quarterfinal match at the Nagoya Kinjo Futo Arena Court Number 6 with their power and clinical display. The experienced Joshna and the 28-year-old Senthilkumar, both from Tamil Nadu, complemented each other.

Joshna and Senthilkumar hardly broke a sweat to take the first game in nine minutes with the Philippines pair coming short in all departments of the game.

The Indians were 3-0 up quiet early and they made it 9-2 in no time. The Filipinos took a point after that but Joshna and Senthilkumar were in a hurry, as they took the next two points and take the first game 11-3.

The second game was a little bit tougher for the Indians as Pelino and Aribado tried a comeback after the Indians took a 3-0 lead. It was 4-2 midway in the second game, but that was the smallest gap the Philippines pair could muster.

Thereafter, Joshna and Senthilkumar stepped to another gear, moving to 7-2 and then 8-4, before winning the second game 11-5 in 10 minutes to seal the match.

“Winning a medal for your country is always very special. And that’s been my motivation all my career,” Joshna told PTI after the match.

On her preparations for the Asian Games, she said, “Well, I train abroad quite a bit. Like, I was in USA before the Asian Games. So I try to do it as much as I can.

“Otherwise, I train at the Indian Squash Academy in Chennai. I work with all the coaches there. And before the Asian Games, I was working with (Australian great) David Palmer in USA.”

Senthilkumar, who is playing in his first Asian Games, said he and Joshna executed their pre-match plans to the ‘T’.

“It was a very good match, we played aggressive from the start till the very end. We executed our plans perfectly and both of us played really well.” he said.

“We have not player our opponents earlier, so we watched the videos of the matches they had played earlier and made our strategy.”