Mahesh becomes first Indian to win Bratislava squash event

NEW DELHI: Teen sensation Mahesh Mangaonkar became the first Indian squash player to win the IMET Open, the PSA World Tour Challenger 5 event, in the Slovakian capital of Bratislava. The five-game victories over the event's top two seeds led to Mahesh making a breakthrough appearance in the sixth edition of the IMET Open.

The 19-year-old World No.98 from Mumbai downed two-time champion Jan Koukal, the top seed from the Czech Republic, 13-11 11-8 9-11 7-11 13-11 in the semi-finals in 98 minutes at the Imet Squash Centrum. Third seed Mahesh then 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 and force a fifth game decider.

But Mahesh 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 game," he said.