CHENNAI: Velavan Senthilkumar from Tamil Nadu and Asian Games medallist Anahat Singh emerged as champions in the men’s and women’s categories, respectively, at the 79th HCL Squash National Championships.

Anahat Singh continued her impressive run, securing the women's final after Tanvi Khanna conceded the final match due to an ankle injury in game two.

Anahat had a slow start and Tanvi dominated the proceedings and won game one (11-9) Anahat made a strong comeback in game two bagging early points, and Tanvi, countered a fall while rallying a shot and stepped out to seek medical treatment. After a small delay, Tanvi announced her withdrawal from the match, handing Anahat her first-ever National title.

Reflecting on her final match, Anahat said, “I'm not as happy as I would’ve been if I had won it properly because my opponent got injured, but still, it's a National title, and I'm happy about it.”

In the men’s final, Velavan secured the first two games, making it challenging for top seed Abhay Singh to regain the advantage. Similar to the women's final, Abhay felt a tiny nick to his ankle in game two. Initially, the scorer said, ‘he didn’t find enough evidence’ of an injury, but Abhay protested, took a three-minute time-out, and returned for game three. In a tense situation where Velavan levelled the game to 10-10, Abhay couldn’t capitalize, hitting the ball on the side wall and conceding the title to Velavan. Post-game, Velavan said that, “I’m very happy; it’s my first National title, and I’m very grateful.”

Reflecting on his turnaround from the previous year’s final against Abhay where he eventually lost, Velavan said, “It was a mental battle rather than a physical one. I had to keep pushing myself for every single point, and I’m glad I was able to keep myself mentally focused and come out on top.”