Bratislava, Dec 16 (IANS) 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.”
