The word ‘pressure’ being used by her repeatedly is a mark of the load of expectations being carried by the 18-year-old. Ranked 20th in the world, there is a genuine sense in the country that she could be a world-beater in her sport as the performances in the senior circuit start to improve, and the tour titles arrive.

In a way, this Junior World Championship was a farewell of sorts for her and a ‘welcome to the big league’ moment. Part of that is also her reluctance to be overawed by the might of the Egyptians, who have dominated the sport. Their presence is not a cause of worry for her.

“The way they’ve been brought up since they’ve been kids, for them, it’s like cricket for India. They’ve been brought up hearing about it, looking at squash all the time, playing squash all the time. I was there in Egypt a year ago for the World Juniors and kids almost five years old would be playing from 6 am. I would see them at 11 pm at the squash courts with coaches, and there were 15 different courts around the whole complex,” explained Anahat.

Beating the assembly line of Egyptians and their ability to go deep in tournaments requires her to level up physically. In big–ticket tournament with 6-7 games for a chance at a medal, working on her overall fitness – and muscle mass in particular – is something Anahat is looking at.

“I’m not amazing in the physicality aspect of it. I’m focusing on that right now. Muscle mass is definitely something that I’m working on improving. Going to the gym a little bit more and focusing on the strength aspect, that’s something that can really improve my game a lot more,” she said.

In a previous press interaction facilitated by the Sports Authority of India, Anahat had said, “Just learning how to stick with the top players and being able to back up multiple tough matches continuously – not just playing one good match and going flat in the next – that’s really important, especially in platinum events, since they’re quite long. You have to play almost six or seven matches just to reach the finals.”

Olympic dreams

The JSW athlete will have multiple pathways to reach the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, where squash will make its debut. But a gold medal at this year’s Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya offers the clearest route. But along that path are some high-ranked opponents, ones whom the Indian is relishing the idea of taking on.

“There are so many top players who are playing this event, like Sivasangari Subramaniam and Satomi Watanabe, number six and number seven in the world respectively. I’ve played them multiple times and always had close games. I’m just really looking forward to playing against them again,” said Anahat, adding, “The stakes are, of course, very, very different now.”

Anahat won Asian Games team and mixed medals at Hangzhou, but this will be the first time she enters the tournament with a clear shot at a title charge. A gold medal gives her a direct entry into the LA Games, but crucially will aso allow her to put in a two-year focused programme built solely towards squash’s bow at the Olympics.

“It’s just that if I get it in this way, it would be amazing. I can just spend the next two years training towards the Olympics rather than trying to qualify for it,” she added.