New kid on the block

The 18-year-old lad from Chennai-based Indian Squash Academy is only the second Indian after Ravi Dixit to win the tournament for under-19 boys. The past one year has seen some steady improvement from this prolific player which was reflected in his performances at different top-level tournaments. He was the only Indian to make it to the quarter-finals of the World Junior Individual Squash Championship this year. In 2015, he clinched a silver and a bronze at the Commonwealth Youth Games following which he was crowned the U-19 national champion. 

“He is supremely talented and a tough professional,” said Cyrus Poncha, who had coached him at the ISA. In fact, Velavan was lucky to be under the watchful eyes of Malaysian coach Major Maniam too at the academy. Major was the consultant coach at the academy for almost 12 years from 2001. The left-handed Velavan’s opponent in the final was not easy by any means as he had been a giant-killer and had accounted for the top seed and reigning world junior champion Yow Eain Ng in the semi-finals. His ability to turn around the match even after two games down surely speaks volumes of his maturity and burgeoning confidence. In fact, Velavan had lost to Yow in the quarter-finals of the World junior championship a month ago. 

A product of the Don Bosco school, Velavan, son of Priyadharshini, a home maker and Senthilkumar, who is into garment export, came to the Indian Squash Academy at the right time and has been there for the last six years. “Velavan’s brother Guhan started playing tennis, so he also started with tennis and we were surprised to find him pick up the racket with the left hand, but he writes with right hand,” says his mother. “He could not continue with tennis so we searched for an alternate sport and we found SRFI was the nearest,” she added. 

Velavan started to play squash when he was 10 years old. “It was all fun to play and interesting to go to academy they had different schedule and also fun games organized. Which holder the kids in academy for hours together. Pictures of world players and world championships tournaments where organized in the academy which was the motivation for them to focus,” recalls Priyadharshini.