The 17-year-old Anahat Singh is all the buzz right now in Indian squash after she registered the biggest win of her young career at the SRFI Indian Tour 2025 PSA Challenger event in Chennai few days back.
The Delhi lass is Indian squash's biggest sensation at the moment and after recording the win at $15k event, her confidence and rankings will certainly get a huge fillip ahead of sterner tests that lie ahead at the JSW Indian Open, scheduled to be held at the Bombay Gymkhana from March 24-28.
With the inclusion of squash at the Los Angeles Olympics of 2028, Anahat is being seen as a potential medal hope given her age and tremendous development in a short period of time.
With her current ranking of 68, Anahat would be hoping to break into the top 50 and give herself the best chance of qualifying for the LA Olympics although the qualification criteria is not yet officially confirmed.
Anahat was excited about taking the challenge head on at the JSW Indian Open.
"This will be one of the bigger tournaments for me up till now and getting to play in India as well as being able to play with so many international players is going to be wonderful. Especially for me it's really important for my ranking and getting to play at home rather than travelling outside the country so much.”
India No 1 and Asia No 3 Ramit Tandon will be the cynosure at the JSW Indian Open alongside the prodigy Anahat and the former expressed his satisfaction of getting to play on home turf.
"It's always good to play at home. I think in India we don't get the opportunity to do it enough so I'm very thankful to JSW and everyone involved who have made this possible. Especially with the Olympics coming up, our PSA rankings are going to be crucial and home court advantage is something Indians don't really get at the top level. Since this is the biggest squash event ever to be hosted in India, it's important in terms of reaching out to more number of people and getting more eyeballs on the sport. I think it's a beautiful thing to have some more sports events within the country so I'm excited.”
Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS) President Manisha Malhotra was all praises for Anahat's growth and recollected how she was signed up by JSW.
"With squash being added for LA 2028, I would get told by people that there is an amazing squash player who can win gold at the Olympics. Please sign her up. And we did it," she added.
JSW Indian Open 2025
The countdown has begun to what is set to be a landmark moment in squash in India. JSW are delighted to announce the JSW Indian Open 2025, India's first ever PSA Squash Copper tournament tournament, with a prize purse of USD 53,500. The JSW Indian Open 2025 will commence from 24 March, with the finals scheduled for the 28th at the Bombay Gymkhana. The competition will begin on the indoor courts, with the quarterfinals, semifinals, and final set to be played on a full-glass outdoor court, offering fans a unique experience.
The JSW India Open is even more significant for the Indian sports fraternity as it welcomes back a major squash tournament to the country after a seven-year hiatus. Co-incidentally, squash is set to make its Olympic debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games.
The return of top-level squash in India with the JSW India Open was announced in the presence of Manisha Malhotra, President, Inspire Institute of Sports, Divyanshu Singh, COO JSW Sports, Ramit Tandon (India No 1 in Men’s Squash) and Anahat Singh (India No 3 in Women’s Squash).
This tournament will see top Indian squash players such Ramit Tandon, Velavan Senthilkumar, Veer Chotrani, Anahat Singh, and Akanksha Salunkhe take the court, alongside some talented international athletes from France, Spain, Holland, Egypt, Canada, England, USA, Malaysia, and Japan among other countries. Both the Men’s and Women’s draw will see a total of 24 players each with India’s Ramit Tandon and Akanksha Salunkhe going in as the top seeds, respectively. Meanwhile, India’s Suraj Kumar Chand and Anjali Semwal are the two Wild Card entries at the JSW India Open.
Manisha Malhotra, President, IIS said, “We are delighted to be able to bring squash back to India at the highest level. Sports like squash need to see the return of the circuits at the state and national level. And through such events, we have to promote and support our players and they need to learn how to play bigger events. From an Indian perspective, it's definitely a sport we can dominate, so this will be a good opportunity for us.
Divyanshu Singh, COO, JSW Sports stated, “We are trying to develop an ecosystem when it comes to the business of sport in India. It is dominated by cricket, but our endeavour is to change that and promote other Indian sports. Very luckily, Indian squash has six players in the top 100, which is a phenomenal achievement already. There is great optimism that going forward up to LA2028, these athletes will shine for India and we are here to get them on the spot.”
“From a marketing perspective, our endeavour is to raise the profile of the players and to raise the popularity of the sport,” he added.
