Indian squash player Mahesh Mangaonkar caused a big upset on Friday at the PSA $15,000 Sekisui Open at Kriens, Switzerland as he showed the exit door to the second seed Raphael Kandra. The fifth seed put up a confident performance to prevail 11-7, 11-13, 11-9, 11-6 over the German.
Mangaonkar will next face the unseeded Geoffrey Demont of France who knocked out the fourth seed Ivan Yuen in the second round.
It was a tight match in the quarter-finals between the 21-year-old Indian and the 25-year-old German Nationals runner-up. After having already won a PSA title this year, Kandra was the heavy favourite.
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But the 65th ranked Mangaonkar was solid right from the start and snatched the first game 11-7. He kept up the pressure even in the second game but experience counted in the end as Kandra edged out the game 13-11.
In a long and competitive third game, the players had to endure draining rallies and it was the Indian who grabbed it by the closest of margins – 11-9. Mahesh managed to continue with his pace and powerful shots in the fourth game and clinched it 11-6 to complete the upset.
Mangaonkar had earlier reached the semi-finals of the Cactus Classic in February on his return to the PSA Tour following a health-related hiatus.
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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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