Chicago [US], May 11 : India's Anahat Singh advanced into the second round of the ongoing World Squash Championships 2024-2025 as she upsetted USA's world No. 28 Marina Stefanoni 3-2 (10-12, 11-9, 6-11, 11-6, 11-6) on Friday.
Making her debut in the singles World Squash Championships, Anahat, the current India No. 1, was trailing Stefanoni 2-1 before turning the tables in spectacular fashion to take the win after a 51-minute-long battle.
"We had really long rallies, and she's a great player. I've seen her play in the last few tournaments, she's been playing really well and she's broken into the top 30 so I knew today it was going to be a battle. It was really tiring and I'm exhausted and I'm really happy I was able to get through it," Anahat said as quoted by Olympics.com.
The Indian squash prodigy will be in for a tougher challenge against world No. 15 Fayrouz Aboelkheir of Egypt in the second round.
A win in the contest could pit her against the world No. 1 and reigning champion Nouran Gohar, another Egyptian, in the pre-quarterfinals.
Anahat Singh is the only Indian woman competing at this year's World Championships.
Meanwhile, the Indian men enjoyed a good day at the office, with three of the four making it to the second round.
Abhay Singh upset Switzerland's Nicolas Mueller 3-1 (11-7, 2-11, 11-7, 11-6) in 41 minutes to progress to the next round.
Abhay is ranked 38th in the world, while Mueller is 25th. The Indian squash player will face 13th-ranked Youssef Ibrahim of Egypt in the second round.
World Championships debutant Veer Chotrani, ranked 57th, scored an equally impressive victory by downing England's world No. 28 Declan James 3-1 (11-9, 9-11, 12-10, 16-14) in a drawn-out encounter which lasted more than an hour.
Chotrani is due to face world No. 2 Ali Farag of Egypt, a four-time world champion, in the next round.
Ramit Tandon, the best-ranked Indian male squash player at world No. 34, beat Ryunosuke Tsukue of Japan by a 3-1 (10-12, 11-7, 13-11, 11-7) scoreline to set up a clash against the 7th-ranked Marwan Elshorbagy of England.
Meanwhile, Velavan Senthilkumar put up a fight against world No. 3 and reigning world champion Diego Elias of Peru before losing 3-1 (7-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-3) in 40 minutes.
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