Breaking into top-50 is the main target: Anahat

The Hindu

10 hours ago

The 17-year-old Indian squash sensation Anahat Singh, who recently won the u-19, women's doubles, and mixed doubles Asian titles, played her maiden senior World championships in Chicago in May this year. She reached the second round, beating American Marina Stefanoni (World No. 26) and losing to Egyptian Fayrouz Aboelkheir (World No. 13).
Shortly after the Worlds, she won the women's and mixed doubles National titles with Joshna Chinappa and Abhay Singh, respectively, at the Indian Squash and Triathlon Academy (ISTA) in Chennai. On the first day of the event, Anahat, who later in June was honoured with the Women's Challenger Player of the Season and the Women's Young Player of the Season awards for the 2024-25 season, spoke about her World championships experience and the key takeaways from it, training with her coach and former men's World No. 1 Gregory Gaultier, and her goals for now.
Excerpts:
How was your maiden senior World championships experience?
I mean, the experience was really good. I got to be around all the top players. It's the biggest event of the year, and just getting to see what it's like as well. Going into the tournament, I knew it wasn't really much of a pressure to win. It was more of just going and doing my best.
But along with that, I knew I had a chance to put on a performance as well. So, I put in my 100%, and I tried in the second match as well. But my first match was extremely tough. So, I wasn't fully recovered. But yes, I'm happy with how the whole tournament went.
What are the major takeaways from the event?
I think just getting to see what it's like — how the senior players (go about it). I mean, I've not really gotten to be at tournaments, and see what they're like and how they're playing their matches.
And I think playing at a tournament like the World Championships is completely different to playing at a normal PSA event. The whole mentality is different. It's one of the last events of the year.
Just getting to see how the top players are reacting, even when their body's extremely tired and how they're coping up with it. It's just that I'm still quite young. There's still a lot for me to learn on and off the court from them.
Did you get to interact with any top players there? Did anyone give you any memorable advice?
A few of them said I played well and that I've improved a lot since they had last seen me. And my coach Gregory Gaultier (France, currently resides in Prague) is a former World No. 1. He's training a lot of the top players like the women's World No. 2 (Egyptian Nour El Sherbini), who won the World championship as well. He's overseeing a few of the top-10 players as well. I was able to spend a lot of time with them and once again see what it's like for them playing at one of these events, and how it's different for me and different for them.
What key differences did you see between you and the top players?
Obviously, the experience (they have) is on another level. I don't really have much of that right now. But besides that, I'd say the strength that they have on the court. I'm still working on that. I've not really gotten to it yet.
I've not had much time to do it. But yes, that's something I've been trying to figure out — how to fix a little bit of that and work towards it a bit more for the past few years.
I don't really like to warm up and cool down, and everyone has been saying that it's really important. Actually, just the game is only like 20% of it. Besides that, there's a lot more to it. So yes, I think just a few things like that have helped me a lot as well.
What does your coach Gaultier bring to the table? Has he brought about any specific changes to your game?
There wouldn't be anything specific. But I think overall, my game has definitely improved a lot. Just the confidence I'm feeling when I'm going into court, because when I go to Prague and train with him, I only play with people who are a lot better than I am compared to when I'm in Delhi, where it's people who are a bit worse or even the same level as me.
I think just getting to play with people who are a lot better than me has improved my game a lot overall. It's given me confidence to play at the top events as well.
How often do you visit Prague and train with him?
It's whenever I get the chance, honestly. Because, I don't really get much time. I have school going on as well, so I don't really get too much time to go. But whenever I'm playing a tournament which is maybe in the Europe area, or if I have a big tournament coming up, like the World championships, I make time to go for at least a week; or if in the middle of two tournaments, I get to go and just train with him for a few days, that's also really helpful.
You've said that you like to watch videos of your opponents before facing them. Did that help in your first-round match against Stefanoni, or were there a lot of nerves?
No, I wouldn't say I was really nervous. But yes, I've been watching whoever I play. It's something that I always do, even if I know I'm going to win — I still do it. Because, it's just important to see what you're going to do inside the court as well.
It definitely helps in getting to know what the player is going to do with you. And people's game styles are very different. It's always good to be familiar with the way they're playing as well.
In that match against Stefanoni, you were trailing 1-2 before going on to win 3-2. So, how did you manage to cope and make a comeback in the contest?
I mean, I had heard about her. Obviously, she's a top-30 player. So, I had seen her play for the past couple of months as well, and she's been doing extremely well. Her ranking has gone up to the top-30 very recently. And I knew I was going to be in for a battle. It wouldn't have been easy at all. I'd say our games are quite similar, but she runs a lot and so do I. But I think she runs a bit more than I do.
I realised that I needed to just incorporate my shots as well and play my best. I didn't really go in thinking too much about it. I just went in and played the best I possibly could.
What goals have you set for yourself now?
I don't think there are too many PSAs lined up for the rest of the season. I have the World Juniors coming up. So, hopefully a medal at or even win the World Juniors. I've been thinking about that for the past three years. I've lost in the quarters every single time. I hope I can break the curse this time around.
I'm not in the top-50 (currently ranked World No. 54) yet, and I got into the top-100 just at the beginning of this year. So, I mean, I'm pretty close to it (top-50) now, but there are not many PSA tournaments coming up. So, it might take some time, but that's the main goal (breaking into the top-50) for the rankings.