India’s Veer Chotrani staged a exceptional comeback to defeat fellow countryman Abhay Singh in a five-game opening-round match on the 2026 World Squash Championships in Giza, Egypt, on Friday.
World No. 45 Chotrani overcame a 2-1 deficit to beat India’s top-ranked males’s participant and world No. 22 Abhay by 3-2 (14-12, 8-11, 5-11, 11-7, 11-2) on the Palm Hills Membership and PGC Golf Central Mall, based on Olympics.com.
This victory marked Chotrani’s second win in opposition to Abhay of their three profession conferences, securing his development to the second spherical the place he’ll face the defending champion and world No. 1 Mostafa Asal of Egypt.
The match commenced with a closely-fought first sport, which Chotrani received 14-12 in a tie-break to take the early lead. Abhay, an Asian Video games medallist, responded by successful the next two video games 11-8 and 11-5, taking management of the competition.
Chotrani intensified his play within the fourth sport, exerting larger management and compelling Abhay into errors, thereby successful 11-7 to stage the match.
The deciding sport grew to become one-sided as Chotrani dominated from the beginning, closing with an 11-2 rating to finish his comeback.
India’s staff at this yr’s championships contains 4 male gamers: Veer Chotrani, Abhay Singh, Ramit Tandon, and Velavan Senthilkumar.
On Saturday, Velavan Senthilkumar, the reigning World Cup gold medallist, is scheduled to face France’s sixth seed and world No. 5 Victor Crouin within the opening spherical. World No. 40 Ramit Tandon will compete in opposition to Egypt’s Kareem El Torkey in one other first-round match.
India has but to safe a singles medal on the World Squash Championships. Squash is ready to make its Olympic debut on the 2028 Los Angeles Video games.