Two Singapore siblings. Two New Delhi-born opponents. An all-Indian quarter-final. One medal guaranteed.
Joshana, playing in her seventh Asian Games, and Velavan will take on The Philippines’ David Pelino and Jemyca Aribado for a place in the semi-finals. In mixed doubles, where India is defending a gold medal, the pair of Joshana Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar defeated the younger Indian combine of Shameena Riaz, daughter of India’s former hockey captain and two-time Asian Games medallist Mohammed Riaz, and Suraj Chand 2-0 (11-7, 11-10).
Anahat Singh has bigger goals than that at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games , but there were little hiccups at the start as India’s No.1 and No.2 squash players set up a women’s singles quarter-final by winning their Round of 16 clashes against the Singapore sisters on Thursday. Veer will battle with Pakistan’s Irfan Muhammad in the quarter-final on Friday, while Abhay will face Japan’s No.1 Ryunosuke Tsukue.
Ranked 71st in the PSA charts, India’s second-highest ranked women’s player had to dig deep against Au Yeong Wai Yhann before winning 3-1 (5-11, 11-4, 11-5, 13-11). On another court around the same time, Anahat, India’s top medal hope and world No.17, breezed past Au Yeong Wai Lynn 11-4, 11-5, 11-7. Anahat, 18, and Tanvi, 30, have played each other multiple times on the national circuit before Anahat leaped to the elite PSA level. The two crossed paths earlier this year in the semi-finals of the JSW Indian Open, a PSA Copper event, in Mumbai, where Tanvi took a game off Anahat before losing 3-1.
Tanvi Khanna played her part in that.
