Mangaonkar wins second pro squash title in Bratislava

Five game victories over the event`s top two seeds led to Mahesh Mangaonkar becoming the first Indian winner of the PSA IMET Open, the PSA World Tour Challenger 5 squash event marking its sixth year at the Imet Squash Centrum in the Slovakia capital on Monday.

Bratislava: Five game victories over the event`s top two seeds led to Mahesh Mangaonkar becoming the first Indian winner of the PSA IMET Open, the PSA World Tour Challenger 5 squash event marking its sixth year at the Imet Squash Centrum in the Slovakia capital here.

The 19-year-old World No.98 from Mumbai made his breakthrough in the semi-finals where he downed two-time champion Jan Koukal, the top seed from the Czech Republic expected to make his fourth final appearance in six years, 13-11, 11-8, 9-11, 7-11, 13-11 in 98 minutes. Third seed Mangaonkar Saturday lined up against defending champion Greg Lobban, the No.2 seed from Scotland who was celebrating his third successive appearance in a Tour final. Despite his heroics less than 24 hours earlier, the Indian teenager was still able to call upon reserves to recover from losing the first game to take a 2-1 lead. Edinburgh-based Lobban, ranked 82 in the world, dug deep to take the fourth to force a fifth game decider. But Mangaonkar refused to give up, reclaiming the advantage to close out the match 7-11, 11-8, 11-4, 6-11, 11-7 after 77 minutes to take the title. "The turning point of this final was in the second set where I started to move properly on the court," said the jubilant champion after the second Tour title triumph of his career. "I was happy to win the third, rested a bit in fourth and fought back in fifth. Squash is also a mental game and I gave it all I had in the final set."