Journey Of Our Nation’s Professional Squash Player, Sivasangari Subramaniam

Sivasangari Subramaniam, 24 is Malaysia’s well known professional squash player. She is from Sungai Petani, Kedah. She continued her studies in Cornell University, United States. She was rated 20th in the world as of May 2022. Her highest world ranking is number 16 which was during July 2022 and currently number 18 on December 2022. She defeated Satomi Watanabe to win the 2018 British Junior Open. She was selected as MSSM (National Schools Sports Council) 2011 Promising Sportsgirl of the Year in 2011.

She joined the PSA Tour in early 2014 and finished in the top eight in most tournaments she entered throughout her first two years on the tour. She reached the final of the Malaysian Squash Tour in 2015, where she was defeated in four games by Nadine Shahin. Yet, she did not give up. She was still practicing with the same dedication and passionate about her dream. The year of 2016 was a turning point for Sivasangari in Malaysian Tour. She won the first six events she competed in. Vanessa Chu, Ho Tze-Lok, Lisa Camilleri, Rachel Arnold, and Tsz-Wing Tong all lost finals during that period.

Sivasangari then had a string of victories in 2017, including another on the Malaysian Tour. During that time, she also won the Beijing Squash Challenge and the Ohana Malaysian Open. She moved into the top fifty the next year and continued to reach two more finals appearances, as well as three more semi-final appearances in 2018, including the Malaysian and Pakistan Opens. The Malaysian won twice on the Tour in 2019, first at the Racquet Club Pro-Series and then at the Australian Open. At the FS Investments U.S. Open Squash Championships in 2019, Sivasangari advanced to the third round of a Platinum level battle for the first time in her professional career, before reaching the same stage of the Women’s World Championship a month later.

Following the Tour’s six-month interruption due to the COVID-19 epidemic, Sivasangari returned to Egypt, reaching the last 32 of the CIB PSA Black Ball Squash Open and subsequently the third round of the El Gouna International Squash Open. In 2021, she reached the quarterfinals of the Manchester Open before making two more Platinum second round appearances at the Allam British Open and the U.S. Open presented by Truist. She finished eighth on that year in the Bronze level DAC Pro Squash Classic. Her 2022 started with a semi-final appearance in the Cincinnati Gaynor Cup before making the final eight at the Squash on Fire Open in Washington, D.C. She finished second at the Carol Weymuller Open before reaching her first Platinum quarter final at the El Gouna International.

Unfortunately, Sivasangari was injured in a car accident just a few weeks after her El Gouna run, and she was unable to compete in any further events in 2022. She had serious injuries on her face and neck which was very close to her spine. She went through two surgeries. She could have done another surgery for her neck, but she avoided that because if the surgery is done, doctor advised that there should be minimal rotation in the neck. So, Sivasangari preferred natural healing. She spent two weeks at the hospital. Once get back home, she was still with the collar on her neck. Yet, she found it difficult to just sit and rest at home. Obviously, that wasn’t her cup of tea because she used to be an active girl. After some time, she started to do simple exercises. Then after months she slowly increased her training when she was getting better. She didn’t want to leave her passion behind, so she was always balancing it no matter how hard the situation gets.

Once Sivasangari bounce back on the track, recently she managed to reach the Finals of the Asian Individual Squash Championships in Hong Kong after the lengthy injury layoff. She won Japan’s top seed, Satomi Watanabe, to step into the final stage. Sivasangari began as the underdog against the Japanese ace, having dropped to No. 50 in the rankings after missing six months of activity. Even after struggles she gave her best in the semifinals and qualified to the Finals. During the finals, in a five-game thriller between 5/8 seeds, Hong Kong’s Chan Sin Yuk defeated Malaysia’s Sivasangari Subramaniam to win the women’s title. Sivasangari’s strive and dedication for her passion will take her to more places and shower her with successes on her path.

Source: PSA World Tour, The Sun Daily, Youtube