Most would look at Anahat Singh’s Silicon Valley Open campaign as memorable — she beat the legendary Nour El Sherbini en route her maiden, and potentially career-defining, PSA Gold-level semi-finals. But her engine room is more ambitious than that. National head coach Harinder Singh, who was with Anahat in California, said after her win against No. 14 Salma Hany that “she could have played better”.

Indian squash titan Saurav Ghosal, who has been mentoring Anahat since December 2023, also feels that while a semi-final run is commendable, it is not enough to sate her (or them). “A lot of the stuff that she’s been learning over the last two months is coming through, which is great. But at the end of the day, it’s another semis. The idea is to try and win these tournaments and that’s what Anahat wants to do as well,” Ghosal tells The Indian Express .

Like at the Asian Games final, Sivasangari Subramaniam was the stumbling block for Anahat in Redwood City too.…