Velavan Senthilkumar (Tamil Nadu) and Anahat Singh (Delhi) won their maiden men’s and women’s titles, respectively in the 79th National squash championships at the Indian Squash and Triathlon Academy (ISTA) here on Thursday.
The 15-year-old Anahat is the second youngest ever to have won the women’s title. Joshna Chinappa was 14 when she won the first of her 19 titles in 2000.
In the first match of the day, top seed Tanvi Khanna (Delhi), having seemingly picked up a right knee injury, unfortunately conceded the women’s final to Anahat.
In the second game, she seemingly slightly collided with Anahat and immediately went down clutching her right knee. Anahat was awarded the point and was up 6-4.
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She walked out of the court, was tended to, and was given a three-minute recovery time. As she tried walking around a bit, apparently to get a sense of whether she would be able to continue, the official announced that she had only fifteen seconds left at which point she conceded the game. The official declared that Anahat had won the second game 11-4.
As the two-minute break between the games elapsed, Tanvi conceded the match.
It was misery for poor Tanvi, who had won the first game with a combination of her skill, opponent’s mistakes, and never-give-an-inch doggedness.
She played a delicate drop shot at the right corner to go 6-3 up before holding on to clinch the longest rally of the first game to lead 8-5. She clinched the opener 11-9.
“I’m not as happy as I would’ve been if I had won it properly. My opponent ended up getting injured. I mean I would’ve been much happier otherwise. But it’s still a National title. So, I am happy,” said Anahat after the match.
Tanvi said she doesn’t know the nature of her injury.
In the men’s final, it was neck and neck in the first and third games. Velavan was up 10-9 when defending champion Abhay Singh (Tamil Nadu) saved a game point to draw level 10-10, but the former went on to claim the first game 12-10.
Though Abhay briefly retired with a physical discomfort in the second game, Velavan otherwise comfortably won it 11-3.
Velavan is to be commended for being nerveless in saving two game points from 8-10 down to make it 10-all in the third game and eventually clinch the match.
“I’m pretty happy with the way I played today. It was more of a mental battle than a physical battle. Mentally, I could keep pushing every single point. I’m really proud of that. More than physicality, I’m just glad I could push through mentally today,” said Velavan after the match.
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