USA-based Mumbai squash player Vikram Malhotra continues to impress as he clinched the PSA $5, 000 Charlotte Open 2016 at the North Carolina city in the USA on Sunday. The 26-year-old, seeded second, upset the top seed Lewis Walters of Jamaica, 11-8, 8-11, 11-7, 11-6 in the final that lasted 60 minutes.
Malhotra in excellent form the last five months
This is Malhotra’s third career PSA title and the second on the trot. The Hartford resident won his maiden PSA title at the Florida State Open in December as a qualifier. Since then, he has reached at least the semi-finals of every tournament that he has entered, winning the title at the Malaysian Tour Leg 1 and finishing as runner-up at the Seattle Open.
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That success has helped him to break into the top 100 of the world rankings and he is currently perched at 92nd.
Naturally, he came to the Charlotte Open the past week riding on sky-high confidence. It helped him to notch two back-to-back gruelling five-game wins in the quarter-finals and the semi-finals against the seventh seed Anthony Graham and the third seed Clinton Leeuw respectively.
In the final, the Jamaican player Walters fought back strongly to snatch the second game with a series of winners. But Malhotra showed great fitness and determination to hold on till the end and lay hands on his career’s third PSA trophy.
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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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