Mangaonkar defeated Henrik Mustonen of Finland 6-11, 11-5, 10-12, 11-5
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Indian squash ace Mahesh Mangaonkar continued his brilliant run at the Ganem Vein Institute Cactus Classic 2016 in Phoenix, USA as he booked his place in the semi-finals of this PSA $15, 000 event.
In a late quarter-final match on Friday, the fifth seed put up a gutsy display to outlast the fourth-seeded Henrik Mustonen of Finland, 6-11, 11-5, 11-5, 10-12, 11-5. The gritty battle lasted 75 minutes.
The 67th ranked Mangaonkar has an uphill task next as he faces the top seed Omar Abdel Meguid in the semi-finals. The Egyptian, who is ranked 34 places higher than the Indian, is in scintillating form and captured the PSA M15 Oregon Open title just last week. At this week’s Cactus Classic too, he has been rock solid and has not conceded a single game so far.
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The 21-year-old Indian returned to the PSA Tour in February after dealing with a health issue at the end of 2015. In his first competitive tournament since the hiatus, the Indian is already showing glimpses of the fighting spirit that helped him to break into the top 50 in January last year.
He began this tournament with a gruelling four-game win over the 20-year-old Egyptian Karim El Hammamy on Wednesday. Mangaonkar would attempt to bring that confidence in the semis and try to reach his first PSA final since the NSCI Open at Mumbai in September.
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About the author
Sudeshna Banerjee
Sudeshna is a veteran Indian Sports and International Tennis journalist as well as editor at Sportskeeda. She has an overall experience of over 10 years with top publications like The Bridge, Fox Sports Asia, and gained a keen interest in Indian sports since the 2002 Commonwealth and Asian Games when she was in school.
Sudeshna holds a Master's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. She attends tournaments regularly and being a highly experienced journalist, she ensures she only contacts the correct people from her network for the most authentic information to be put in her articles.
Sudeshna’s favorite Indian athlete is PV Sindhu owing to her big-tournament performances. She also admires Tennis legend Rafael Nadal for his resilience and has witnessed the Spaniard in action at the French Open, due to which, Roland Garros is her all-time favorite Grand Slam tournament.
Neeraj Chopra’s gold medal win at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics made a lasting impact on Sudeshna. She has also interviewed him along with Badminton star Chirag Shetty and several other sports personalities. She has done on-ground reporting on multiple ITF tournaments along with the Premier Badminton League, Asian Boxing Championships and the Davis Cup.
When not using her skills and years of experience in crafting compelling content, Sudeshna likes to read, watch movies and travel.
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