Squash Squash most often refers to: * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (plant), the fruit of vines of the genus ''Cucurbita'' Squash may also refer to: Sports * Squash (professional wrestling), an extr ...

is a recreational sport in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

but is slowly gaining popularity as a competitive sport. It is governed by the

Squash Rackets Federation of India The Squash Rackets Federation of India aka SRFI is the Indian governing body for the game of squash (sport), squash. It conducts the National Squash Championship, promotes the game through the state squash bodies, provides training facilities, s ...

. The

India men's national squash team The India men's national squash team represents India in international squash team competitions, and is governed by Squash Rackets Federation of India. Since 1967, the men's team has participated in three quarter finals of the World Team Cha ...

has participated in three quarter finals of the

World Team Squash Championships The World Squash Team Championships are an international squash competition organised by the World Squash Federation and played between teams representing different nations. Countries enter teams of three or four players to represent them in th ...

since 1967.

Dipika Pallikal Dipika Pallikal (born 21 September 1991) is an Indian professional Squash (sport), squash player. She was the first Indian player to break into the top 10 in the Official Women's Squash World Ranking, world rankings. Early life Pallikal was bo ...

Joshna Chinappa Joshna Chinappa (born 15 September 1986) is an Indian professional Squash (sport), squash player. She reached a career-high world ranking of #10 in 2016. She was the first Indian to win the British Junior Open Squash, British Junior Open in 20 ...

and

Saurav Ghosal Saurav Ghosal (; born 10 August 1986) is an Indian squash (sport), squash player. He reached a career-high ranking of World No. 10 in April 2019. He won the first ever squash medal for India, a bronze in the singles and mixed doubles at the 202 ...

have been among the top ranked Indian squash players. Dipika was the first Indian woman to break into the top 10 women's world rankings in 2012. Saurav achieved his career high of 10 to become the highest ranked Indian male player in 2019.

History

Squash was introduced to India by the

British Armed Forces The British Armed Forces are the unified military, military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its British Overseas Territories, Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests ...

; the sport has been played before World War I. During the period of British rule, it was largely adopted by British colonies around the world. Most

military base A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and operations. A military base always provides accommodations for ...

s had squash courts built to entertain officers. They can still be found in some army facilities in India. The

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

restricted the use of the facilities to the upper class of society. Therefore, only those who were from the army or members of private clubs had access to squash in India. The

was formed to oversee squash in India. It conducts training camps, state and national tournaments, and the National Squash Championship. The SRFI is in charge of selecting the squad and coaches for the Indian national team. In 1990, it established the

Indian Squash Academy Indian Squash Academy (also known as ICL-TNSRA Squash Academy) is a squash training facility established by the Squash Racquets Federation of India (SRFI) in Chennai, India. The India Cements The India Cements Limited is a cement manufactu ...

. According to the SRFI, squash is established in only 19 states and 4 union territories. In December 2012, squash player

Dipika Pallikal Karthik Dipika Pallikal (born 21 September 1991) is an Indian professional squash player. She was the first Indian player to break into the top 10 in the world rankings. Early life Pallikal was born in Kottayam into a Malayali family. She is the da ...

achieved a career-best rank of 10. She became the first female squash player to be conferred with the

Arjuna Award The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards given for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the second-highest sporting honour of India, the highest being the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The award is named after Arjun ...

, India's second highest sporting award, in the year 2012. Later in December 2013,

became the first Indian male squash player to reach the top 20 by achieving a career-best rank of 15. He was also awarded the Arjuna Award by the president of India in August 2007.

Competition history

In December 2014, Dipika Pallikal and

defeated

Jenny Duncalf Jennifer Duncalf (born 10 November 1982) is a former professional squash player from England. She reached a career-high world ranking of World No. 2 in December 2009. Biography Duncalf was born in Haarlem, Netherlands, but was a pupil at Ha ...

and

Laura Massaro Laura Jane Massaro (née Lengthorn; born 2 November 1983) is an English retired professional squash player. She was ranked number 1 in the world. Biography She was born in Great Yarmouth and attended Albany High School, Chorley, which is ...

to claim India's first-ever gold medal in squash at the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

. At the

2014 Asian Games The 2014 Asian Games (), officially known as the 17th Asian Games () and also known as Incheon 2014 (), were a pan-Asian multi-sport event held from 19 September to 4 October 2014 in Incheon, South Korea. On 17 April 2007, Incheon was awarded ...

, the Indian men's national team clinched gold; the women's earned their first silver. Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal, with a silver and bronze respectively in the individual events, signed off with their best medal haul in the Asian Games. The men's team, led by Saurav Ghosal, clinched the historic gold after edging out Malaysia in the individual finals. At the 2014 WSF World Junior Championship, Kush Kumar became the first male squash player from India to reach the semifinal. He made history by winning the first ever bronze medal for India at a World Junior Championship. At 2015,

Velavan Senthilkumar Velavan Senthilkumar (born 26 March 1998) is an Indian professional squash player. He reached a career-high world ranking of 39th in March 2025. Early life Senthilkumar was born March 26, 1998 in Salem, Tamil Nadu, India to Shanmukham Priyadha ...

won a bronze medal in the boys singles event in squash at the

2015 Commonwealth Youth Games The 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games, officially known as the V Commonwealth Youth Games, and commonly known as Samoa 2015, was the fifth Commonwealth Youth Games which started in the year 2000. It was held from 5 to 11 September, 2015 in Apia, the ...

held in Samoa. Velavan Senthilkumar and Harshit Jawanda won silver in the mixed doubles competition. In 2016, both the men's and women's national teams won gold at the

2016 South Asian Games The 2016 South Asian Games, officially the XII South Asian Games, is a major multi-sport event which took place from 5 February to 16 February 2016 in Guwahati and Shillong, India. A total of 2,672 athletes competed in 226 events over 22 sports ...

in Guwahati. In the men's individual events, Saurav Ghosal and

Harinder Pal Sandhu Harinder Pal Sandhu (born 31 March 1989) is an Indian professional squash player. He reached a career-high world ranking of World No. 47 in April 2018. He was a part of the Indian team, who won the gold medal at the 2014 Asian Games held at I ...

won bronze after losing to arch-rival Pakistan; in the women's event, top seed Joshna Chinappa won gold after defeating her Pakistani rival Sadia Gul. In 2017, Indian doubles pair Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal won bronze after losing to English pair

and

Alison Waters Alison Claire Waters (born 19 March 1984) is an English former professional squash player. She reached a career high ranking of 3 in the world during October 2010. Biography As a junior player, Waters won her first major squash tournament ...

in the semifinals of the WSF World Doubles Squash Championship. In May 2017, Joshna Chinappa became the first Indian to clinch the Asian Squash title after beating compatriot Dipika Pallikal Karthik in the women's final. This tournament was held at

Express Avenue Express Avenue (Tamil: எக்ஸ்ப்ரெஸ் அவென்யூ) is a shopping mall in Chennai promoted by Express Infrastructure, A division of Express Newspapers Pvt. Ltd. which is bought by Ramnath Goenka from the monies of tha ...

shopping mall in an all-glass court set up inside. During the

2018 Asian Games The 2018 Asian Games ( or ''Asian Games 2018''), officially known as the 18th Asian Games (), and also known as Jakarta-Palembang 2018 or Indonesia 2018, were a Asia, continental multi-sport event that was held from 18 August to 2 September 201 ...

, Saurav Ghosal, Dipika Pallikal, and Joshna Chinappa won bronze in their respective singles events. As of 2018, 24 Indian players were in PSA's top 500 rankings. Nine were in top 100. Saurav Ghosal became the first Indian male squash player to reach the top 20 after achieving a career best of ranking of 15 in 2013. In women's discipline, Dipika Pallikal became the first Indian woman to reach the top 10 after achieving a career-best of ranking of 10. Former player Bhuvneshwari Kumari held the most national championship titles (16) until 2019, when Joshna Chinappa broke her record.

Hosting history

The SRFI conducts tournaments from the National to Junior levels in India. The premier competition that takes place annually is the National Squash Championship. Other major tournaments include Sub Junior National Championship, Junior National Championship, Mumbai Masters Open, and Indian Junior Open.

National Squash Championship

The National Squash Championship is a seven star ranking event conducted annually. As of February 2020, it has been held 7 time, usually in February or June. Saurav Ghosal and Joshna Chinappa, representing the Indian state of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

, are the current champions, after defeating Abhishek Pradhan and Urwashi Joshi in the finals of the 2020 edition. The total prize money of the edition was .

Other events

In 2011, the SRFI conducted the WSF World Cup between March 8 and March 12. It was initially scheduled to be held at the ICL-TNSRA Squash Academy, but moved to an all-glass court erected at the Express Avenue mall. The first seed, Egypt won the event by beating the second seed, England. In 2012, inaugural edition of U-21 World Cup was held in Chennai at the Express Avenue mall. It was supported by the Sports Development of Tamil Nadu. Egypt beat India in finals to win the event.

Medal table

* Updated till 31st July, 2024

Team and rankings

National award recipients

References

External links

Squash Rackets Federation of India

Indian Squash Professionals
{{Squash by country Sport in India