Anahat Singh eyes Asiad glory amid Olympic push & board exams

Mumbai: There is a moment in every young athlete’s rise when the road ahead suddenly sharpens into focus. For India’s teenage squash sensation Anahat Singh, that moment has arrived, and it is shaped like an Asian Games gold medal. The stakes have never been clearer. With squash set to feature at the Olympics, the qualification pathway has added a new layer of urgency and opportunity. For Asian players, the equation is tantalisingly simple: win gold at the Asian Games, and a place at the Olympics is secured. “That’s definitely what my main aim is,” 18-year-old Anahat said during an interaction ahead of the JSW Indian Open squash tournament (Copper event) beginning today.

“If I’m able to qualify through the Asian Games, that would be really amazing.” It is a shift not just in ambition, but in mindset. What was once a quest for a podium finish has now become an all-or-nothing pursuit. “My aim was to get a medal in the Asian Games. Now it’s gone from a medal to a gold,” she says. “That has definitely changed.” Her confidence powering that ambition is not unfounded. The last few months have been among the most productive of her young career.

Anahat’s breakthrough run in the United States — three tournaments, one title, and a surge into the world’s top 20 — has given her the kind of validation that rankings alone cannot. “I ended up winning one of them, which I wasn’t expected to win,” she says. “Those three tournaments definitely gave me a lot of confidence… that I’m able to compete with the top players.” Yet, for all the upward momentum, she is cautious. A month-long break, enforced partly by academic commitments, has paused her competitive rhythm. “I’ve not played a tournament in almost a month, so I want to see if the momentum is still there,” she admits. “Hopefully it is, because I’ve been training quite hard.” Since the Asian Games is dominating her calendar and her thoughts, every decision now — from training intensity to tournament selection — is filtered through that lens. “Every single player is going to push on this one tournament,” she says. “I’m just going to put my 100 per cent until the Games.” There’s always a Plan B. “If that (Asian Games gold) doesn’t happen, then focus on rankings,” she explains. “Get my ranking as high as possible so I’m not worried till the last minute.” Now that she’s in the top 20, the tournaments are starting to get tougher, and going up the rankings is even more difficult. It means she has to literally pick and choose her events, as losing in smaller events will cause her to drop rankings. “From 10 to 20, almost everyone’s at the same level,” she says. “Even to go up one spot, you need to win a really big tournament.” To raise her game, her one focus is on physical conditioning, specifically endurance. “I’d seen that if I had one really long match, I wouldn’t be able to back it up,” she explains. “I’ve been focusing on getting my stamina up as high as possible.” Promising to help her take her game to the next level is her coach, former world No.

1 Gregory Gaultier, whose demanding approach has reshaped her training environment. “He’s very strict… he makes sure that for the one-and-a-half to two hours I’m on court, I’m at 100%,” she says. “He doesn’t give me even a little bit of scope to be casual.” And then, there is the other side of her life, one that is far removed from squash courts and PSA rankings. Anahat is preparing for her board exams, which begin in April and run into May. “I think they (pre-boards) were pretty good,” she says, cautiously. “Now I’m going to be focusing on my boards.”