Abhay, Anahat top seeds in JSW-Willingdon Squash

Asian Games mixed doubles bronze medal winners Abhay Singh of Tamil Nadu and Anahat Singh of Delhi are the men’s and women’s top seeds in the JSW-Willingdon Little Masters and Senior Squash Open scheduled to begin here from Saturday.

Abhay, who had lost to Velavan Senthilkumar in the 79th National Squash Championship last November, is expected to dominate the men’s competition.

The 25-year-old from Chennai is expected to encounter a strong challenge from Maharashtra’s 22-year-old second seed Suraj Kumar Chand, who would hope to set the record straight after he lost to the former in the Nationals semifinals.

Maharashtra’s 23-year-old Rahul Baitha is seeded third ahead of 21-year-old Australian Remi Young (world rank 312), who will be vying for the top honours in the men’s draw.

The 15-year-old Anahat, ranked 123 in the world, had become the second youngest National women’s champion, and has had an impressive run in the lead-up to this tournament.

She recently won the girls’ under-17 silver medal in the British Junior Open and had earlier emerged victorious in the Girls’ Under-19 category at the Scottish Junior Open.

Having won four titles in two major tournaments in Mumbai last year, she is the firm favourite to again come out trumps at the Willingdon Sports Club on January 17.

Standing on Anahat’s road to success is Canadian-born 23-year-old Japanese Erisa Sano Herring (world rank 127), the second seed.

The third seed is Sri Lanka teenager Chanithma Sinaly (world rank 173), and the fifth seed is Serbia’s Jelena Dutina (world rank 193). Rathika Suthanthira Seelan from Tamil Nadu and Mumbai’s Janet Vidhi are the fourth and sixth seeds respectively.

An overwhelming 435 players from India and overseas will compete in 16 categories over the six-day championship.