- Indian Squash Talent Shines as Southern Slam Quarter-finals Produce High-Intensity Battles
Chennai, August 20, 2026: Arihant KS stunned top seed Aryan Pratap Singh 11-5, 11-2, 11-5 in the men’s quarterfinals of the Southern Slam squash at the Indian Squash Academy in Chennai on Thursday. Arihant, who had earlier defeated higher-seeded Sandhesh PR in the pre-quarterfinals, continued his impressive run to book his place in the semifinals.
Meanwhile, Vedant Patel, seeded 3/4, overcame Kunal Singh 13-11, 12-10, 11-9, while Gurveer Singh defeated Purav Rambhia 11-8, 11-3, 11-5. Second seed Rahul Baitha completed the men’s semifinal line-up with an 11-3, 11-6, 11-2 win over Hridhaan Shah.
In the women’s quarterfinals, Eesha Shrivastava rallied to beat 3/4 seed Shameena Riaz 7-11, 11-4, 11-7, 11-8. Earlier in the day, Eesha also advanced to the U-19 girls’ semifinals, underlining her strong showing across both categories. Top seed Nirupama Dubey defeated Vyomika Khandelwal 11-6, 11-4, 11-1, while Rathika Suthanthira Seelan and second seed Pooja Arthi R also progressed.
The junior categories also saw several strong Indian performances. In GU19, Akanksha Gupta, Devashree Arora, Vyomika Khandelwal and Eesha Shrivastava advanced to the semi-finals, while Raghav Vashishtha, Shravin Jain and Yuvaditya Jain progressed in BU19. In BU17, top seed Shreyansh Jha, Saharsh Shahra, Hridhaan Shah and second seed Lokesh Subramani moved through, while Riyansika Verma, Kaashvi Mangal and Aarika Mishra advanced in GU17.
The Southern Slam 2026 features 12 events and 397 entries, with competition running from August 17 to 22 at the Indian Squash Academy in Chennai. Organised by the Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI), the tournament brings together emerging junior talent and established senior players, with PSA ranking points available in the senior events and Asian Junior Ranking points across the junior categories.
