Anahat Singh, 18, beats eight-time world champion Nour El Sherbini in straight games in California

After the match Anahat said she had not expected the result. "I still can't believe that it ended up on my side of the court," she said. She credited her plan: "The game plan ended up working pretty well and I just stuck through it." India's national coach, who was at the venue, had told her before the match that she did have a shot if she played really well, and she did.

Anahat took the first game 11-8 as the evening session began on a cold court, putting the ball into the front corners with great accuracy. She led 9-1 in the second before El Sherbini staged a comeback, and held on to win it 11-8. The third went 11-7. "I know how many times she has come back in her career so I was just so determined not to throw it away," she said, and she called the win "unreal". Matches at this level are the best of five games to 11 points, so she needed only three.

The win was not a surprise for those who have followed her season, even if the opponent was. She won the world junior title earlier this year, and in September she took silver in women's singles at the 2026 Asian Games in Japan, the first Indian woman to win an Asian Games medal in squash singles. She lost the final to Malaysia's Sivasangari Subramaniam. The Silicon Valley result came a few weeks after that.

In the first round at Redwood City she beat Egypt's Nour Aboulmakarim 11-8, 11-8, 12-10 in 31 minutes. The straight-game win over El Sherbini then came in roughly the same time.

Anahat was due to play Egypt's Salma Hany in the quarter-finals on Thursday afternoon local time. Hany is ranked 14th in the world and finished runner-up at the Silicon Valley Open in 2021, losing the final to the American Amanda Sobhy. She came through a four-game match against Nardine Garas on day two, saving four game balls in the fourth game, so the quarter-final is no easy draw for a player who has just beaten a former champion. The result of that match was not available when this was written.

Why it matters

It was a day of upsets in Redwood City. Pakistan's Noor Zaman, ranked 34th, beat the defending men's champion and second seed Karim Gawad 11-9, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6. Malaysia's Rachel Arnold beat fifth seed Amanda Sobhy in five games, and Egypt's Sana Ibrahim beat Japan's Satomi Watanabe, ranked sixth in the world. Sivasangari Subramaniam, the Malaysian who beat Anahat in the Asian Games final, is also through to the last eight, as are Salma Hany, Olivia Weaver, Marina Stefanoni and Farida Mohamed.

Squash is set to make its debut at the Olympics at Los Angeles in 2028, and Indian players have been working towards it. The sport has had few Indian successes at the top of the women's game, which is dominated by Egyptian players, and Anahat's results in a single season, a junior world title, an Asian Games medal and a win over El Sherbini, put her among the sport's rising names. Nothing in the reports says whether she has qualified for Los Angeles.

PSA Gold events carry ranking points, so the run in California can also move her up the world rankings. For El Sherbini, the top seed, the defeat is an early exit.