Who is Anahat Singh - How a PV Sindhu fan became India’s squash sensation

Anahat Singh, still in her teens, has become India's squash superstar and there's good reason behind the tag.

The Delhi-based squash player won two bronze medals at the Asian Games 2023 - in the women's team and the mixed doubles events - in Hangzhou.

At the World Junior Squash Championships 2026, Anahat Singh won the girls' singles title to become the first Indian to claim the crown, ending Egypt's 15-year reign in the event.

Anahat added a women’s singles silver to her collection from the Asian Games 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya, becoming the first Indian woman to reach an Asian Games squash singles final.

For fans following Indian squash closely, however, Anahat's exploits hardly came as a surprise.

Anahat Singh - the origin story

Anahat Singh was born on March 13, 2008, in Delhi. Her father Gursharan Singh is a lawyer while her mother Tani Vadehra Singh an interior designer.

The sporting culture was always strong in the Singh household as both Gursharan and Tani had dabbled in hockey in their youth.

Anahat Singh’s elder sister Amira is also an accomplished squash player and was one of the country’s top-rated Under-19 players before moving to Harvard University to pursue her bachelor’s degree. She still plays squash for the Harvard women’s team.

Anahat’s first love, though, was not squash. It was badminton.

Watching PV Sindhu play at the India Open in Delhi when she was six, a young Anahat became fascinated with badminton and started to pursue the sport. She even won a few youth-level tournaments in Delhi.

Anahat Singh, to date, remains a big fan of PV Sindhu and bumping into the two-time Olympic medallist at the Commonwealth Games Village will surely be a dream come true.

However, as fate would have it, Anahat transitioned to squash when she was eight.

"I was a badminton player and my elder sister used to play squash at the time. I went with her for a few tournaments and practice sessions. For a few years, I was playing badminton and squash together before I realised if I want to take it up professionally, I’d have to go with one sport," Anahat explained in an exclusive interview with Olympics.com. "And just travelling a bit more for squash tournaments since it was easier for my parents to take us both for the same sport at the same time. So, that’s just how I got into the sport."

Coached by her sister Amira and former national-level squash players Amjad Khan and Ashraf Hussein, Anahat Singh took little time to establish herself as the future of squash in India.

Within a short time, Anahat, who is a student at Delhi's British School, became the India No. 1 in the Under-11 category and stepped up to the Under-13 category, where she rose to No. 1 not just in India but also in Asia and Europe.

Anahat Singh shot to fame in 2019 after winning the Under-11 girls’ category gold medal at the prestigious British Open squash tournament, a first-ever for India. She also won a bronze at the Asian junior championships later that year.

In 2020, Anahat Singh, a student of the British School in Delhi’s Chanakyapuri, bagged silver medals at the British and Malaysian Junior Open tournaments before COVID-19 disrupted life worldwide.

Anahat returned to the court to lift the US Open 2021 junior (Under-15) squash title in Philadelphia, becoming the first Indian woman to become a US Open champion in any age division.

The year 2022 brought even more success.

Besides adding the German and Dutch Open titles to her ever-growing trophy cabinet, Anahat won the Under-15 gold at the Asian junior squash championships 2022 in Thailand in June.

Anahat Singh, with a trail of victories in her wake, earned her spot in the national camp in Chennai, where she expectedly impressed and made the Indian squash team for the Birmingham Games.

She was also the youngest member of the Indian contingent for the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham and even got a win under her belt at her debut major senior competition, beating Jada Ross of St Vincent and the Grenadines in the round of 64.

"I was really, really nervous going into (CWG) because it was my first tournament playing as a senior," Anahat told Olympics.com. "And initially I was just locked up in my room the whole day. I was only coming out for my matches because I was really scared of talking to anyone."

Anahat Singh, then just 14, bowed out in the next round after a 3-1 defeat to Wales’ Emily Whitlock, a former world No. 12, in the second round but the teenage prodigy, despite her nerves, had already proved her prodigious talent on the big stage.

Coached by Ritwick Bhattacharya, Anahat Singh also made the quarter-finals of the girls' singles at the World Junior Squash Championships 2022 before going down to Egypt's Fayrouz Abouelkheir, a player two years her senior.

Anahat Singh, whose effortless and elegant style is often likened to that of legendary Pakistani squash player Jansher Khan by her coach, also started 2023 with a bang by winning the British Junior Open Squash Under-15 title after beating Egypt's Sohaila Hazem in the final.

In August 2023, the young Anahat Singh added yet another feather to her crown by becoming the Under-17 champion at the Asian Junior Squash Championships 2023 held in Dalian, the People's Republic of China. The teenager beat Hong Kong's Ena Kwong in the final.

At the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou, Anahat Singh bagged two bronze medals - in the women's team event and later in the mixed doubles. Abhay Singh, Anahat's partner in the mixed doubles, was impressed by the teenager's talent and maturity.

She also briefly held the record of being the youngest Indian to become an Asian Games medallist (15 years, six months and 16 days) before Sanjana Bathula surpassed it.

"Getting to do this at 15, it's just hats off to her,” Abhay said. “When people look at a 15-year-old girl, they think 'oh, she needs to gain some experience'. Absolutely not. She's such a fighter.

"It's so refreshing having a 15-year-old around you because she makes everything very fun and it's all bubbly and nice," Abhay added. "She looks at life in a very relaxed, fun way, so you can't be very serious around her.

"To be a 15-year-old girl and come to the Asian Games and win two bronzes, she's showing what she's capable of."

In November, Anahat became the second-youngest Indian to be crowned the national champion. She capped off 2023 on a high, winning the Under-19 title at the Scottish Junior Open in Edinburgh.

In 2024, Anahat Singh won nine PSA Challenger titles and successfully defending her Indian senior and junior national titles that year.

Anahat carried her form into the 2025 season, starting the year with the Under-17 title at the British Junior Open and helped India win a bronze medal at the Asian Junior Squash Team Championships 2025 in Hong Kong China.

Later she won the Indian Tour tournament in Chennai for her career's 10th PSA title. The victory also saw her break into the top 70 in the PSA Rankings for the first time at world No. 68 and become India's No. 1 in women's squash.

Anahat also won the Asian qualifiers in Malaysia to qualify for the World Squash Championships 2025 in Chicago.

She was the sole Indian representative in the women's singles draw there and marked her senior world championship debut by upsetting the USA’s world No. 28 Marina Stefanoni in five games in the opening round before bowing out in the second round.

Anahat's exploits helped her win the PSA Challenger Female Player of the Season for 2024-25. She also shared the award for the PSA Young Female Player of the Season with World Junior Champion Amina Orfi.

The Indian teenager won the women's and mixed titles at the Asian Doubles Squash Championships 2025, partnering Joshna Chinappa and Abhay Singh, respectively. She also bagged the U19 girls title at the Asian Junior Championships.

At the World Junior Squash Championships 2025 in New Cairo, Egypt, Anahat Singh clinched a bronze, ending India’s 15-year medal drought at the prestigious under-19 event.

In August, she completed a hat-trick of senior national titles. A couple of months later, Anahat Singh stunned defending champion and world No. 7 Tinne Gilis in the quarter-finals of the Canadian Women’s Open 2025 for her maiden victory against a top 10 opponent.

Anahat capped off the year with India's maiden Squash World Cup title in Chennai, partnering Abhay Singh, Joshna Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar.

Everything she does, Anahat says, leads up to a larger goal.

"I think yeah winning a medal at the Olympics is like a dream come true for every athlete and that’s definitely something that I am keeping in mind while playing even the smaller tournaments because it all leads up to that," Anahat said.

In 2026, Anahat Singh won her maiden PSA Bronze-level title after beating Commonwealth Games champion Georgina Kennedy of England in the final of the Squash On Fire Open.

The breakthrough title also vaulted her into the world’s top 20, making her the youngest Asian player ever to achieve the milestone – surpassing Malaysian legend Nicol David’s long-standing record.

Later in the year, Anahat Singh scripted history by beating Egypt's Ruqayya Salem in the World Squash Junior Championships 2026 girls singles final at Niagara-on-the-Lake in Canada, becoming the first Indian squash player to be crowned a junior world champion.

The 18-year-old Anahat's triumph surpassed Joshna Chinappa's runner-up finish in 2005, which had previously stood as India's best showing at the junior worlds for over two decades.

At the Asian Games 2026, Anahat scripted another piece of history by becoming the first Indian woman to reach the squash singles final at the continental meet.

The Indian produced a remarkable comeback in the semi-finals, recovering from two games down to beat Japan’s world No. 6 Satomi Watanabe 3-2 (9-11, 11-13, 12-10, 11-6, 11-3).

Anahat eventually settled for silver after going down 3-0 (11-4, 11-4, 11-7) to Malaysia’s Sivasangari Subramaniam - the defending champion - in the women’s singles final.

However, she played a central part in winning a bronze medal in the women's team event at Aichi-Nagoya 2026.

Anahat Singh's achievements and medals

• British Junior Open Squash 2019 U-11 champion
• Bronze medal in U-11 girls category at 2019 Asian Junior Squash Championships
• Became first Indian to become US Open champion in any age group after becoming the U-15 girls champion in 2021
• Gold medal in U-15 girls category at 2022 Asian Junior Squash Championships
• British Junior Open Squash 2023 U-15 champion
• Gold medal in U-17 girls category at 2023 Asian Junior Squash Championships
• Bronze medal in women's team event at 2023 Asian Games
• Bronze medal in mixed doubles event at 2023 Asian Games
• Youngest member of India's contingent for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham at the age of 14
• National champion in 2023, 2024 and 2025
• U-19 girls' champion at Scottish Junior Open 2023
• Won nine PSA Challenger titles in 2024, more than any other woman
• British Junior Open Squash 2025 U-17 champion
• Bronze medal at Asian Junior Squash Team Championships 2025
• PSA Challenger Female Player of the Season for 2024-25
• PSA Young Female Player of the Season for 2024-25
• Bronze medal at the World Junior Squash Championships 2025
• Squash World Cup champion
• Squash On Fire Open 2026 champion
• ASF Player of the Year 2025 (girls)
• Junior world champion in 2026
• Became first Indian women's singles player to win Asian Games silver medal in 2026.