Asian Squash Doubles Championship: India’s Abhay Singh, Velavan Senthilkumar defeat Pakan’s Noor Zaman, Nasir Iqbal in men’s final | Sport-others News

India dominated the second Asian Squash Doubles Championships when their men’s, women’s and mixed teams won all three titles in the event on Thursday. The top-seeded men’s pair of Abhay Singh and Velavan Senthilkumar lost the first set but made a comeback to beat their Pakani opponents Noor Zaman and Nasir Iqbal 2-1 (9-11, 11-5, 11-5) in the summit clash that lasted 88 minutes.
The Indian duo had reached the final after beating Hong Kong pair of Chi Him Wong and Ming Hong Tang in the semifinals.
Abhay and Zaman had faced each other in the men’s team final at the Hangzhou Asian Games back in 2023 in a match where the Indian got the better of his Pakan counterpart and won the gold for his team.
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“I lost myself (in that moment) which is why I chucked my racquet into the crowd. I didn’t know what was happening. I was really feeling a lot of emotion. Even after everything had settled there was too much going on. So many emotions,” Abhay recollected to The Indian Express on a Twitter Space in 2023 after the Asian Games win. “It’s the first time I have thrown my racquet into the crowd. It went flying. There is a video on Twitter which I watch over and over. It’s funny how different people react to that moment.”
In the women’s doubles final on Thursday, second seeds Joshana Chinappa and Anahat Singh also rallied from a set down to win 2-1 (8-11, 11-9, 11-10) against Malaysia’s Ainaa Amani and Xin Ying Yee in a 35-minute final.
Joshna and Anahat had made it to the summit clash after beating Hong Kong’s Po Yui Kirstie Wong and Yee Lam To Tse.
The top-seeded mixed doubles pair of Abhay and Anahat made it a clean sweep of titles for India as they beat Malaysia’s Rachel Arnold and Ameeshenraj Chandaran 2-0 (11-9, 11-7) in the 28-minute summit showdown.
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In the process, Abhay and Anahat bagged their second title of the championships.
They had made it to the last-two stage after beating another local pair of Ainaa Amani and Syafiq Kamal in the semifinals.
(With agency inputs)
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