Anahat Singh wins historic Asian Games squash silver at 18
Anahat Singh’s Asian Games final ended in defeat on Sunday, September 27, but the 18-year-old left Nagoya with a first for Indian squash. By winning silver in women’s singles, she became the first Indian woman to reach the event’s gold-medal match and finish on the second step of the podium.
Malaysia’s Sivasangari Subramaniam, the defending champion, won the final in straight games, 11-4, 11-4, 11-7. Singh had entered the match with a chance to turn her breakthrough run into India’s first Asian Games women’s singles squash gold. Sivasangari instead kept control of the contest and retained her title.
A final against the defending champion
Singh briefly led in the opening game, but Sivasangari took charge of the rallies and pulled away to win it 11-4. The Malaysian followed with another 11-4 game, leaving Singh needing a comeback of the kind she had produced in the semifinal. Singh kept fighting in the third and won more points than she had in either of the first two games, but Sivasangari closed out the match 11-7.
The scoreline was decisive. It does not, however, tell the whole story of Singh’s tournament. She reached the final through three very different tests: a straight-games opening win, a quarterfinal against an Indian teammate and a semifinal in which she came back from the brink of elimination.
The route to silver
Singh began her women’s singles campaign with an 11-4, 11-5, 11-7 victory over Singapore’s Au Yeong Wai Iynn in the round of 16. Her next opponent was compatriot Tanvi Khanna. Singh won that quarterfinal 11-2, 11-5, 11-3 to secure a place in the last four.
Japan’s Satomi Watanabe presented a much tougher challenge in Saturday’s semifinal. Playing against the home favourite, Singh lost the first two games 9-11 and 11-13. She then saved two match balls in the third before taking it 12-10. With the contest back within reach, Singh won the fourth game 11-6 and the decider 11-3 to complete a five-game comeback.
That victory made Singh the first Indian woman to reach an Asian Games squash singles final. It also ensured that India would earn at least a silver in the women’s singles event for the first time. The result mattered beyond one upset: under the pressure of a semifinal, Singh recovered from two games down and stayed in the match when Watanabe was within a point of ending it.
What the milestone means
Indian women had won Asian Games singles medals before, but not silver. Dipika Pallikal took bronze in 2014, while Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa both earned bronze in 2018. Singh’s finish moves India one step further in the women’s singles event, even though the gold remains out of reach.
It is also a new kind of Asian Games medal for Singh herself. At the previous Games, held in Hangzhou in 2023, she won bronze as part of India’s women’s team and another bronze alongside Abhay Singh in mixed doubles. She did not compete in the women’s singles draw there. In Nagoya, her medal came from a run through the individual event, culminating in a final against its defending champion.
Singh arrived at these Games as the 2026 world junior champion. Her silver now sits alongside that junior title as evidence of progress on the senior stage. Squash is set to make its Olympic debut at Los Angeles 2028, giving the next phase of her career an added focus. Sunday’s loss denied her the Asian Games title, but her path to the final established a new benchmark for Indian women’s squash.
