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.
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.
