Mahesh Mangaonkar stuns second seed to enter semi-finals of Sekisui Open

Mahesh during an earlier competition

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.

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.