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Indian squash star Velavan Senthilkumar secured his maiden PSA Copper-level squash title, defeating Hungary's number one player Balazs Farkas in the final of the Budapest Open.
On Friday, Velavan, ranked number 54, prevailed over Farkas in straight games by 11-4, 11-2, 11-3, completely dominating the ninth-seed, as per Olympics.com. It was the third match between the two on the PSA Tour, with India leading him 2-1 in head-to-head competition. Their previous encounter was won by Velavan in 2024 after Farkas prevailed in their first meeting in 2019. Velavan's biggest win came during the quarterfinals when he stunned the world number 18 and the top-seed Eain Yow Ng of Malaysia in straight games, beating the current Asian Games champion by 11-2, 11-9, 11-8. Velavan had started his campaign in Budapest with a straight-games win over England's Will Salter, winning 11-9, 11-6, 11-5 and followed it with a win over fifth seed Raphael Kandra of Germany 11-9, 6-11, 11-7, 11-2 in the second round. After beating Eain, he faced Veer Chotrani, his compatriot in the semifinals and came out of it with a win by 9-11, 11-8, 11-7, 1-11, 12-10 in five games to reach the final. This is overall Velavan's 11th PSA Squash Tour title, which comes ahead of the Asian Games from September 19 onwards in Japan, where he will be playing in the men's singles event. Squash will make its Olympic debut at LA 2028, and the men's and women's singles champions at the Asian Games 2026 will earn qualification spots for the Olympics. (ANI)
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