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

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.

India's first ever 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. Anahat will next face world No 6 Satomi Watanabe, a bronze medalist from Hangzhou.

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 competing at the Asian Games since Busan 2002, surpassed the earlier record of another Indian squash great Saurav Ghosal who retired last year after making six appearances at the continental multi-sport event.

Joshna and Senthilkumar completely dominated the quarterfinal at the Nagoya Kinjo Futo Arena Court Number 6 with their power and clinical display.

Joshna and her 28-year-old teammate Senthilkumar, both from Tamil Nadu, complemented each other 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... 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 made his Asian Games debut, 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."

Anahat said facing fellow Indian Tanvi added pressure but was happy to secure a comfortable win after their previous encounters had been closely fought.

"I'd definitely say it adds a little bit more pressure than playing any other country because we spend so much time off-court as well. We travel here together, we eat almost every meal together and see each other all the time.

"I've played Tanvi so many times before and we play each other in a lot of local events. I've never really beaten her in straight games. It's always been either 3-1 or 3-2 and very close. So, yeah, I'm just really happy I was able to play well today and win comfortably as well."

Planning against Satomi

On the Saturday's semifinal against Satomi, she said, "I'm just trying to take it one step at a time. As for my ranking, I'm not expected to win the event. As for Satomi (Watanabe), she won 3-2 last time, but there's definitely a lot that I learned.

"I've watched that match a hundred times on repeat and coming into this event as well. So, I know what changes I need to make and hopefully I'm able to replicate that and do well tomorrow as well."