New Delhi: India’s youngest athlete in Commonwealth Games, 14-year-old Anahat Singh, is representing the nation in squash. She has been one of the best since her Under-11 days and aced the national trials to make it to the Indian team. She has almost a 22-year age gap with her teammate and squash veteran Joshna Chinappa.
She started playing badminton when she was just six years old while accompanying her sister Amira, who played squash at Siri Fort. But two years later she shifted to squash. Currently, her sister is in the squash team at Harvard while Anahat is making her India debut at CWG in Birmingham. It can be said that playing sports was in her blood. Not only her sister but her parents also played sports. Her parents were hockey players in college.
Badminton is a much more popular sport in India as compared to squash, but she took up the latter as she said that she enjoys it more. In an interview with ESPN, she said, ” I need to do the thing I have the most fun with instead of something more popular.”
Anahat has won two national circuit titles, two national championships and eight international titles in less than six years. She also became the first Indian woman to win the British Junior Squash Open (2019) and US Junior Squash Open (2021).
She won her debut match in the 2022 CWG against Jada Ross. Not only did she win it, but she wins it in style, defeating her opponent 3-0. She won the games with a score of 11-5, 11-2, 11-0. She has advanced to the round of 32, where she faces Wales’ Emily Whitlock. According to the updated schedule, the match will be played on day 2 at 11:45 pm IST.
