‘Our focus is on winning singles gold at Asian Games’

National squash coach Harindepal Sandhu (centre) is flanked by India`s squash stars Suraj Kumar Chand (left) and Tanvi Khanna at the JVPG Club on Monday. (Pic/Satej Shinde

National squash coach Harinderpal Sandhu is confident that India's squash stars can bag gold medals in both, the men's and women's singles events, at the upcoming Asian Games in Japan, and with it, earn a direct qualification to the LA 2028 Olympics where the sport will be making its debut. For this, he believes that tournaments such as the HCL-SRFI PSA Challenger, which will be held at the Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana (JVPG) Club from June 29 to July 3, will help sharpen the country's leading squash talent.

Promising squash stars Senthilkumar and Tanvi Khanna, will lead India's challenge among 48 players from 15 nations at the HCL-SRFI PSA Challenge tournament which carries a total prize purse of USD 30,000 along with valuable ranking points.

"Tournaments such as these are extremely important for players who need to accumulate points and improve their rankings to qualify for bigger events abroad," Harinderpal said on Monday.

"Our focus is on winning the singles gold medals for men and women, which will ensure automatic qualification for the LA Olympics in 2028. It won't be an easy task, but our players are preparing well and will be ready," added the coach who is an Asian Games gold medalist himself.

Hong Kong's Alex Lau and South Africa's Hayley Ward will be the respective top seeds in the men's and women's categories while Senthilkumar is seeded second among the men and Tanvi is seeded third behind Egypt's Farida Walid among women. Suraj Kumar Chand is the other seeded Indian player among men.

"We have some of the finest sporting infrastructure in Mumbai. No stone will be left unturned to provide an unforgettable playing experience to all the players in this tournament. We have three air-conditioned glass backed courts, out of which two will be used for matches and one will be a practice court," said Jayesh Choksi, President of JVPG.

List of seeded players:

MEN:

1) Alex Lau (Hong Kong)

2) Velavan Senthillkumar (India)

3) Yasin Shohdy (Egypt)

4) Diego Gobbi (Brazil)

5) Chi Him Wong (Hong Kong)

6) Abdullah Hafez (Egypt)

7) Suraj Kumar Chand (India)

8) Seif Tamer (Egypt)

WOMEN:

1) Hayley Ward (RSA)

2) Farida Walid (Egypt)

3) Tanvi Khanna (India)

4) Noa Romero (Spain)

5) Nour Khafagy (Egypt)

6) Malak Fathy (Egypt)

7) Akari Midorikawa (Japan)

8) Risa Sugimoto (Japan)