Squash: Indian men and women end with bronze medal after semifinal defeats

Defending champions India came up short against Malaysia in the men’s semifinals after the women met the same fate against Hong Kong despite Tanvi Khanna’s stirring comeback, ending the country’s Asian Games squash campaign with two bronze medals in the team event.

In the women’s team semifinals, Anahat Singh’s opening-match loss proved crucial India went down against Hong Kong 1-2. Later on Thursday, India were the stronger team on paper against Malaysia but were outplayed 1-2 to settle for bronze. 

Overall, India ended their squash campaign with two silver medals in singles, couple of bronze in team event and another bronze in mixed doubles.  

A lot rode on 18-year-old Anahat in the women’s semifnals as India hoped to better their Hangzhou 2022 show. However, the world No. 17 Indian squandered four match points to go down 2-3 (11-9 11-8 6-11 11-13 10-12) against world No. 25 Sin Yuk Chan in a thrilling opening match.

World No. 73 Tanvi then scripted a fine comeback with a 3-1 (4-11 13-11 11-9 13-11) win over world No. 40 Ka Yi Lee to keep India’s hopes alive in the three-match contest.

However, veteran Joshana Chinappa, a former world top-10 player, suffered a straight-game loss to world No. 39 Ho Tze Lok. “Yeah, definitely very disappointed, we had come so close to, obviously in the mixed doubles as well. But we played our best and with that I’m really happy with just the effort level,” Joshna said. 

“Of course the team event as well, we had come really close to also beating them, but yeah this is what happens sometimes and it’s tough, but at least I’m so proud of my team,” said the 40-year-old who set a record of playing in the most editions of Asian Games among Indians. Up against Sin Yuk Chan, Anahat made a superb start, taking the first two games, and was leading 10-6 in the fourth game before squandering four match points to allow Sin to make a roaring comeback.

She fell 7-9 behind in the fifth game but clawed back to 9-9, only for Sin to grab the first match point. The Indian saved it with a backhand drop, but a composed Sin earned another match point and sealed it with ease.
“I was 2-0 up and had a great chance of winning, but I wasn’t really able to convert the game. Of course, it doesn’t always go to plan, but Tanvi did incredibly well coming back and backing up that match and winning against an amazing player,” Anahat said later.

With the silver she had won in the women’s singles here, Anahat has taken her Asian Games medal count to four. She won two bronze medals in the 
last edition.