Indian teenager Anahat Singh hailed a career high as she produced an incredible five-game comback to defeat home favourite Satomi Watanabe and move one step closer towards the first Olympic berths.
Singh became the first Indian women’s squash player ever to reach an Asian Games final – where she will face defending champion Sivasanagri Subramaniam in the gold medal match.
It was Japan’s No.1 Watanabe who started stronger, claiming the hard-fought opener 11-9. Watanabe continued her strong form into the second game, taking it to assume a commanding 2-0 lead, before giving herself the opportunity to round off the tie with match ball in the third.
Despite being just one point away from the final, it wasn’t to be for the World No.6, as Singh mounted a remarkable comeback, saving match ball before taking the game 12-10.
From there, the pace of the game changed, with Singh continuing to attack Watanabe and putting a large amount of pressure on the No.2 seed. This pressure was proving to be effective, as the World Junior Champion levelled the scores at 2-2, winning the fourth 11-6.
With momentum fully behind Singh heading into the final game, and the weight of ome pressure weighing on Watanabe, Singh then ran away with the final game to close out the contest 11-3 and complete a memorable comeback.
“I think this is the best win of my career,” Singh said after her victory. “She’s number six in the world but I wasn’t really thinking too much about this, my mentality was that anything is possible on a stage like this.”
“You know, you’re representing your country, and you just have to really show what your capability is. So, I think that’s what really pushed me over the edge and motivated me to keep pushing.”
Joining her in Sunday’s final will be Malaysia’s No.1 seed Sivasangari Subramaniam, who powered into the final with a straight-game victory over Hong Kong, China’s Sin Yuk Chan [5/8].
Despite the distance in the scores, it wasn’t a totally straightforward win for the Malaysian, with Chan refusing to back down against the World No.5, pushing her to the very last point.
Reaching back-to-back finals at the Asian Games, Subramaniam said: “I’m happy, and I relieved a bit, too, but I am happier with how I played today compared with yesterday.
“That second game was crucial when I was down a bit but came back. When we met at the last Asian Games final it was 3-2 and a close battle, so I’m glad to have closed out in three today.
“I’m happy, but the job is not done yet. I’ve one more match to go and I don’t want to think about being the defending champion. I need to just do my job on the court and hopefully I’ll defend the title.”
Subramaniam wasn’t the only Malaysian to reach back-to-back finals, as her teammate and No.1 seed in the Men’s draw, Eain Yow Ng, reached the final following a convincing 3-0 win over Pakistan’s Noor Zaman [3/4].
“I am feeling good, feeling great after today’s match,” said Yow Ng after confirming his place in the final.
“It was a really interesting match, as he gave me a really tough match at the beginning, and then there was such a drop-off from him, but I have to give myself some credit as today I made it hard for him and I was really happy with how I played.
“I am having a lot of fun on court this week, to play at the Asian Games, on this stage, it doesn’t really get much bigger than this for us. So this week I am really taking it all in, and I just want to show people what I can do on a squash court.”
The World No.18’s victory will see him battle for the gold medal against India’s No.2 seed Abhay Singh, who reached his first Asian Games final after a strong performance against Pakistan’s Muhammad Ashab Irfan, winning 11-3, 12-10, 11-6.
“It was a big match, no one comes into a semi-final match at the Asian Games expecting it to be easy. I have a lot of respect for Irfan today, he has had some big wins and he is a talented player and I knew that he could be a threat,” said Singh.