Squash players Ansh, Unnati looking to make it big in Khelo India Youth Games

In the early 2000s, Hari Om Tripathi coached 2022 Asian Games mixed doubles gold medallist Dipika Pallikal to the national Under-13 girls squash title, the first major trophy for any of his players.

Tripathi was one of the first coaches at the Indian Squash Academy in Chennai, and it is no wonder that the former national coach's three children grew up watching and playing the sport. Two of them, Ansh and Unnati Tripathi, are having a homecoming of sorts as they will be representing Uttar Pradesh in the 6th Khelo India Youth Games 2023 at the same Indian Squash Academy from Saturday.

"We grew up playing here. This is like home for us," Ansh, said as quoted from Khelo India.

With squash set to make its Olympic debut in Los Angeles in 2028, the inclusion of the sport for the first time in the Khelo India Youth Games has excited the Tripathi siblings.

"The Khelo India Youth Games is a really big opportunity for us. We get to play our senior players here as well," said 16-year-old Unnati.

For 18-year-old Ansh, the Khelo India Youth Games is perhaps the last major opportunity to impress at the junior level.

On Saturday, Unnati began her campaign with a facile 11-5, 11-3, 11-1 win over Chazerina Benjamin of Madhya Pradesh while Ansh defeated Rachit Shaliya of UP 14-12, 11-9, 11-6 to advance to the quarter-finals.

Ansh began playing the sport around the tender age of 6, and watching her elder brother was also one of the reasons Unnati took up squash. Their youngest sibling, Atulit, made the boys' U-15 quarterfinals at the Northern India squash championship in Delhi last November.

Ansh has also played cricket at the district level in Dehradun, where their father is currently based as a coach at Welham School, having moved up north from Chennai around 2015. Both Ansh and Unnati smile and deny any sibling rivalry between them on the court, and claim that they have never been in opposing teams.

When asked who she counts as inspiration, Unnati replies, "Anahat (Singh), definitely," referring to the teenage Asian Games squash medallist.

Unnati represented the country at the Asian Junior Individual Squash Championships in China last year, and wore her India jacket as she walked in at the Indian Squash Academy practice courts on Friday. (ANI)