SQUASH

Tanvi Khanna wins PSA Challenger title in Australia

Sixth seed Tanvi Khanna beat third seed Chan Yiwen of Malaysia 7-11, 12-10, 12-10, 11-8 to clinch the women’s title in the PSA Challenger squash tournament in Coffs Harbour, Australia, on Sunday.

It was the third PSA title for the 27-year-old Tanvi who had beaten compatriot and former top-10 star Joshna Chinappa in five games in the quarterfinals.

In the men’s final, Adden Idrakie of Malaysia proved strong for Velavan Senthilkumar as he raced to a 11-8, 11-2, 11-9 victory, for his eighth title.

“Extremely pleased with the way this week turned out for me. Every match was hard, but I was able to dig deep and find a way to win. Am really proud of my performance. The quarterfinal against Joshna was exciting. I had not played her in a few years. So, it was a good opportunity for me. Am happy that I was able to play my game for most part of that match and win in five games”, said Tanvi.

Quite prompt in giving credit to coaches Dhruv Dhawan, Lalit Varma and Saatvik Joshi apart from trainer Naveen Panwar, Tanvi said that she had prepared well with them back home in Delhi, for the current cycle of tournaments.

“I put in a lot of work in the past two months with my coaches and physical trainer to build my game and fitness. The efforts in the off-season training sessions are showing now”, said Tanvi.

Happy to get back to her best friend Collette Sultana of Malta, a fellow squash pro from the Columbia University who lives in Australia, Tanvi was pleased with the support.

She will be competing in two more tournaments in Australia over the next fortnight.