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Agarwal eager to make the transition
NEW DELHI: Abhishek Agarwal doesn’t care much for the tag of top seed. Sometimes, it motivates him. Often it’s a deterrent. “It makes me afraid of losing,” he says.
NEW DELHI: Abhishek Agarwal doesn’t care much for the tag of top seed. Sometimes, it motivates him. Often it’s a deterrent. “It makes me afraid of losing,” he says.
On Wednesday, however, the 22-year-old justified his billing at the Summer Classic Junior Squash championship with a 11-7, 11-7, 15-17, 11-7 win over Delhi’s Harshit Muchhal.
Abhishek is grateful that the federation has introduced the U-23 category in the tournament underway at the Delhi Gymkhana Club. He believes the move will help players fresh out of the junior scene.
“Most of the juniors, after the age of 17 or 18, look to travel abroad to study and to play tournaments,” says Agarwal. “Thus the initiative is good, but it will take some time. As of now there is very little competition in India.”
That is where coming from a city with a bustling squash culture helps.
“In Mumbai, there are a lot of tournaments every month. We get to play at various inter-club meets,” says the JSW-backed player. It was at one of these meets, the Khar Gymkhana event last month, that he defeated former India player Vikas Jangra.
He has also had run-ins with world No 17 Saurav Ghosal, and dubs the two defeats as “good for experience and exposure”.
“I remember the matches being tiring. The last time I faced him, the 20 minutes were damn hard for me. I played in the evening and the whole night my stomach was aching.”
For now, he wants to leave Delhi with the title and make the main draw at next month’s senior nationals.
The goal is rather simple. “I want to play Saurav again.”
