Abhay Singh Focuses on Present, Not 2028 Olympics

“I have always looked at coaches from the perspective of who can help me improve and give me what I am looking for, in that moment. I had access to Malcolm Willstrop very early on because of my Indian seniors and James (Willstrop) of course over the last two years now, because I have always liked the Willstrop way of squash. Harinder (Pal Singh Sandhu – 5-time Asian Games medallist) becoming coach is a huge blessing for all of us – just to have someone who was in the top 50 in the world (Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu reached a career high singles ranking of 47) be accessible to you in India. As for other coaches in India, personally speaking I haven’t had the chance to work with anybody, simply because how restricted my life was with High School, because I was based in Chennai and I was under Major Maniam (Consultant Coach for the Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI) for 14 years and played a crucial role in creating a structured coaching and administration system through the Indian Squash Academy (ISA) in Chennai) and Cyrus Poncha (former Indian player turned administrator and coach, is the current Secretary General of the Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI) and Vice President of the Asian Squash Federation) at that time – during my juniors. As soon as I finished High School, I had the great opportunity to work with Malcolm. We are looking not just at seniors achieving a lot, we are also looking at junior squash becoming predominant in India. Our juniors have won medals at the World juniors now. I am not going to put Anahat (Singh) in this conversation, because that’s a different league (level that Anahat is playing at), but if Indian junior squash is achieving good things, then the juniors are in good hands. But I also think it’s important to give former players a platform to coach and nurture talent, because we experience things that other people don’t, being on (the) Tour. Some of the junior squash I am watching is very promising, although it’s not at the same level that it was at my time, because I think our batch of juniors had some of the strongest juniors who played squash for India. I think, just like the players, it’s a very exciting time for the coaches (too) to come forward and establish themselves. At the moment I think a lot of the spotlight should be on Harinder (Pal Singh Sandhu) and what he has already achieved with the Indian teams. He was at the World Team Championships last year and at the World Cup this time. He is someone who really, really gets along with everybody. He understands that everyone has a different personality and (he) adjusts accordingly. With him leading the Indian squad right now, I think India have found the coach they needed after a very long time.”

“I am not sure about the others, but personally I am not thinking about this (the 2028 Olympics) much. Of course, when we heard about it (squash at the Olympics) there were conversations that I had with my team, to expand the team a little bit and get some better support staff onboard. But that is all we have done as of now. I used to be someone who used to forecast, but now it’s all about what’s in the near future. We are done with the World Cup and (now) I am focused on the PSA (Professional Squash Association – the governing body of men’s and women’s professional squash) season and then the Asian Games (September 19 – October 4, 2026 in Japan) and then we might have a few other big events, before we go into the Olympics. But until we have a qualification-criteria and until we near qualification itself, for me it (the Olympics) is really not something I am even talking about with my team, because it can play against you if you are thinking that far ahead and then you end up overanalysing many other things which are not necessary in the moment.”