After taking up squash full-time following his graduation from Cornell University in the USA two years ago, Veer Chotrani has emerged as one of the players to watch out for on the PSA Tour.The 24-year-old from Mumbai has quietly climbed the PSA rankings ladder to a career-high World No. 40, registering notable wins over top players. Chotrani has now set his sights on winning the Asian Games gold medal in singles, which offers direct qualification for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.“If I win the Asian Games singles gold, I will clinch an Olympics berth. Nobody knows who will play in the individual events (at the Asian Games) because you have the mixed doubles event as well. But if I get a chance to play singles, it will be a pretty good opportunity,” Chotrani told The Hindu.He also spoke about competing full-time on the PSA Tour, the challenges a professional player faces, and his desire to perform better in Platinum events in the new season.You are ranked 40th in the world. Are you satisfied with your season?Yes, it was good. I’ve seen progress in every department of my game. I had some good wins. There were also a few matches where I didn’t get the result, but I feel that my performances against some of the top players were really good. Overall, it was a positive season.You registered some impressive wins over Abhay Singh and other higher-ranked players this season. Which performances would you consider the highlights?I beat France’s Baptiste Masotti, who was in the top 20, at the Squash on Fire Open in Washington. That was probably my biggest win... my first victory over a top-20 player. I beat Abhay twice (in the Indian Tour in Mumbai and the World championships in Giza) out of the three times we played each other. I played one of my best matches when I pushed top-10 player Joel Makin (Wales) to five games at the New Zealand Open in Christchurch. Reaching the quarterfinals of the Hamburg Open was great.These kinds of performances have given me a lot of confidence and motivation to keep pushing. I know that I have the potential to get up there very soon. It’s just a matter of time before I put together a consistent run of good results. Hopefully, that happens next season.Which are the areas you think you need to work on?My game has definitely improved, but I still think there is plenty of work to do, especially on the mental and physical aspects. That is what really separates players like me from the top guys. At this level, almost every player has the squash ability to compete at a very high standard. But who is willing to push themselves physically and mentally to the absolute limit to get over the line? That is what separates the top-10 players from those ranked in the 30s and 40s.That is something I’m working on. The more exposure I got against the top-10 and top-20 players this season, the more I learnt. It gave me a much better understanding of what it takes to compete at the highest level, something I didn’t fully have before this season. Being able to step on court with someone like Makin, who is among the top players in the world and one of the fittest on the Tour, and being able to stay with him and compete was a huge positive for me. In today’s game, the physical and mental sides are everything, so those are areas I really want to focus on.Do you take advice from your father Manish Chotrani, who is a former National champion?We only talk squash; we love the sport way too much. It’s our common language. He only wants me to get better every time I’m training or playing a tournament. All the time we’re just discussing what the next step should be. It’s good to have someone at home who keeps a check on me. He is someone who understands me very well. It’s very good to have that kind of sporting, squash mind... someone who can analyse my game very well. He talks to my coach David Palmer and gets feedback from him. Whenever I’m in Mumbai, I’m with my dad on the court. He’s the one who hits with me all the time.