Squash: Sunayna Kuruvilla leaving no stone unturned to roar back into form

Sunayna Kuruvilla and Harinderpal Singh Sandhu are the top seeds in the Professional Squash Association's (PSA) domestic Challenger-10 squash tournament slated to be held in Chennai from August 23 to August 26.

The domestic Challenger-10 squash, exclusively for Indians, is being conducted in a bid to help players get the perfect restart in their squash endeavors.

Some of the top domestic and international Indian names in squash will be playing in the tournament.

Abhay Singh, Harinderpal Singh Sandhu, S. Velavan, Rounak Yadav, Abhishek Pradhan, Abhishek Agarwal, Aadit Zaveri and Rahul Baitha will compete in the med's division, while Sunayna Kuruvilla, Tanvi Khanna, Urwashi Joshi, Sanika Choudhari, Sachika Balwani, Aparajitha Balamurukan, Abhisheka Shannon and Janet Vidhi, among others, will be in action in the women’s group.

For Sunayna Kuruvilla, the tournament offers an opportunity to enjoy herself and get in the groove to slay bigger challenges ahead. In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda, Sunayna Kuruvilla said she is approaching the tournament with an open mind and with less expectations. She said:

“I am very excited about the event. The last tournament I played was in March. I'm happy to be playing another event and I'm hoping that it will go well. I don't really have too many expectations for myself considering that I haven't played competitively in a very long time. I am just expecting myself to go out there and just perform well.”

With the pandemic throwing life out of gear, Sunayna Kuruvilla admits that there is no way to gauge the consistency in her game and the level she is playing at. She explained:

“I think now in light of the pandemic in us being stuck for the last year and a half, the opportunity to kind of assess matches in itself hasn't happened. So, the assessment has been very difficult. It was very difficult to keep a sense of consistency going."

"However, in general terms of knowing how I feel physically, how I'm hitting the ball, I'll be able to get a sense with whether I'm doing solo or whether I'm doing some drills or conditions with somebody. I think it helps you gauge whether or not you're in good form or at least in decent shape.”

A lot of work unfinished for Sunayna Kuruvilla

Sunayna Kuruvilla is no stranger to the professional circuit. The Indian player has been playing the sport for close to a decade now and knows how to pace her career going forward. That she has the illustrious cousin Dipika Pallikal in tow is a feather in the cap for Sunayna Kuruvilla.

Having done her homework extensively, Sunayna Kuruvilla knows where to plug the gaps and said there is a lot of work to be done, especially in her shot selection and being able to perform in multiple situations. She added:

“To be honest, I think in every aspect if you were to ask me what my strength is, it would probably be the physicality aspect of my game that's helping me stay where I'm at. But otherwise, I think I need a lot of work skill wise I need a lot of work in terms of just like short selection and to be able to perform in those pressure situations. I think I still need a lot of work in terms of that.”

While the pandemic-induced lockdown did catch everyone off guard, Sunayna Kuruvilla was no exception. The squash player, who loves to get her workouts done on time, was having a difficult time, like the rest, to cope up with the lockdown. However, quick to get back on her feet, Sunayna Kuruvilla found a way to keep herself prepared for all the adversities. She explained:

“I enjoyed doing different workouts at home. I enjoyed the phase (the second lockdown) and I think I was more focused on trying to enjoy myself more than trying to be squash fit, trying to fit everything in. There was no clarity on when the next game was going to happen. It was very taxing mentally, and it took a lot out of me.”

Sunayna Kuruvilla is leaving no stone unturned in being ready for the domestic tournament and hopes to get back into form quickly. The squash player has been putting in the hard yards for more than a month and is hoping to be on the positive side of the result in the challenger tournament. She said:

“But this time my focus was to be on something else and I was able to have more fun. That’s when I enjoyed my workouts a lot more. I had just started playing in July when everything opened up for us. So, I've been training for almost five weeks now. And, now that the tournament is next week, I'm pretty excited and hopefully I'll be able to go out there and have fun and do well.”