The top two seeds, Anahat Singh and Tanvi Khanna, met each other in the women’s final of the 79th National Squash Championships on Thursday at the Indian Squash and Triathlon Academy in Chennai.
Khanna proved to be the most difficult challenge for her, as predicted. Anahat was forced to make mistakes because to Khanna’s deceptive approach of opening up points with straight drives and finishing with precisely placed drop shots. Anahat saved the first game ball with a backhand kill after trailing 7-10 in the opening before being awarded a stroke at the end of the ensuing rally. Nonetheless, Khanna won the first game 11-9 with a crosscourt winner on her third game ball.
Khanna also won the first two points of the second game before Anahat won five straight and appeared to be finding her stride. Before the sad occurred, Khanna had narrowed the gap to 4-5.
Khanna injured her left leg in August 2021 while competing in the final of a Professional Squash Association (PSA) event in Noida against compatriot Sunayna Kuruvilla. While she won the championship, her determination to play in pain cost her the majority of the 2022 season owing to an anterior cruciate ligament damage in her left knee. Perhaps this compelled Khanna to call it quits on Thursday in order to avert more harm.
Anahat became the Senior Nationals’ second youngest champion in history. Chinappa had won the first of a record 19 titles when he was 14 years old in 2000.
“There’s that board around the glass court with all the winners’ names on it.” “That’s something that always comes to mind when I think about winning, and I’ve always dreamed of seeing my name up there on that board,” the teenager remarked a day before the final.
Featured Image: Disha Daily