It turned out to be a grand week for Indian squash ace Mahesh Mangaonkar as he clinched the title at the PSA $15,000 Sekisui Open at Kriens, Switzerland on Sunday. The fifth seed put up a determined display to stave off a tough challenge from the third seed and defending champion Kristian Frost Olesen of Denmark, 12-10, 7-11, 12-10, 11-13, 11-8.
This is the Mumbai-born player’s fifth career PSA title and his first since winning the JSW PSA Squash Circuit 2 in October, 2014.
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The title comes after a struggle last year with his form and health issues. The World No. 65 reached only one final in 2015 at the NSCI Open at home but went down to the top seed Adrian Waller in four games.
In December, the 21-year-old had to opt for a health-related hiatus from the Tour and came back only in February. He started showing flashes of his brilliance right from his first PSA event on his return and made it to the semi-finals of the Cactus Classic.
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At the Sekisui Open this week, he grew in confidence as the tournament progressed. He started with a tight four-game victory over 20-year-old Frenchman Baptiste Masotti. But it was the quarter-finals where he came alive and played to his full potential as he upset the second seed Raphael Kandra.
Mangaonkar had a stellar junior career and won the U-15 British Open title in 2009.
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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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