One year ago, junior Rishi Srivastava had a chance to win the squash Junior National U19 Championship, but he left the court defeated. This year, he reached the finals again. But this time, he finished the job.

Because Srivastava excelled during five smaller national tournaments, he was ranked No. 1 and was therefore the top seed going into the national championship. He advanced to the finals where he defeated the No. 2 ranked player, Hollis Robertson.

“To finally get over the (finish) line and be able to win it for me, my family and my coaches was such an amazing feeling, and I just felt so much relief,” Srivastava said.

Srivastava has been playing squash since 2015. His father played in India before they moved to the United States, which is when Srivastava started his squash career.

“When we moved to the States, there was a club in Philadelphia called Fairmont Athletic Club,” Srivastava said. “When (my father) saw some courts, he wanted me to try it. I’ve stuck with it ever since.”

Srivastava joined the squash team when he was in seventh grade. All but two members of the team had graduated, so head coach Cam Hopkins decided to take a risk and call up six eighth graders, and Srivastava.

Hopkins recalled the moment when he understood Srivastava’s talent. Srivastava was matched up with a senior who had a top 15 national ranking and was a highly sought-after college recruit. Srivastava lost the first two games and was on his way to losing the match.

“He turned to me in the interlude between games, and he said, ‘I’ve got this, I’m gonna do this,’” Hopkins said. “And lo and behold, he went out, won the third game, won the fourth game and won the fifth game to complete the comeback and beat the boy 3-2.”

His personal coach, Josh Simon, has been working with Srivastava since 2017 and helped him improve beyond just practices for the school team. They trained to make sure that Srivastava was ready to go when the tournament came along.

“He makes sure that I’m in the right mental headspace (and that) I’m in the best physical and mental condition that I could possibly be in before the tournament,” Srivastava said.

Srivastava normally practices five to six days a week on the court for two to three hours, and he ramps it up leading up to a match. For nationals, he also made a lifestyle change.

“I was eating more seriously going into nationals, and I definitely think that played a role into how it went,” Srivastava said.

Now he is getting ready for his next challenge: the World Championships in July.

“I’m really going (to) try (to) train hard for that and try and get as much training in as possible to do as well as I can to get as high of a ranking,” Srivastava said. “And then next year, in March, it’ll be nationals again, and hopefully I can go back-to-back.”

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Alex Carder can be reached at [email protected].

Eshan Singh can be reached at [email protected].