Mixed results for top players like Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu and Tanvi Khanna gave a hint of the tough path ahead in the 81st National squash championship at the Dhyan Chand National Stadium on Sunday.
After a rigorous exercise of the pre-qualifying event, featuring a couple of hundreds of aspirants, one of the bright prospects, Aryaveer Dewan, played well to beat the former National champion Harinder, 8-11, 11-4, 14-12, 10-12, 11-9, that won the hearts of the packed gathering.
It was a super effort from Harinder as he saved five match points from 5-10 in the fourth game to force the decider. At 9-9 in the fifth game, Harinder was twice got caught stranded on the path of the ball, leading to “stroke” to his opponent, who heaved a sigh of relief. Aryaveer has more work to do before he joins the elite in the main draw on Monday.
Much in contrast, Tanvi Khanna who has been busy in the international circuit, and had stretched the eventual champion Habiba Hani of Egypt to five games in the PSA World event in Australia, recently, eased past Parul 11-1, 11-6, 11-2 to get into the final qualifying round.
“I have been focusing on the PSA ranking after returning from injury. Thus, I don’t have a national rank,” remarked Tanvi, who is the third best among Indian women behind Anahat Singh and Akanksha Salunkhe.
For a sport that is making its debut in the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, it is unbelievable that there is no mechanism to merge the national and international performances to arrive at a unified national rank.
Published on Aug 24, 2025
