India's Mahesh Mangaonkar and Harinderpal Sandhu crashed out in the first round of the USD 35,000 CCI Open squash tournament here yesterday
Mumbai: India's Mahesh Mangaonkar and Harinderpal Sandhu crashed out in the first round of the USD 35,000 CCI Open squash tournament here yesterday.
While Mangaonkar could not avenge his recent defeat against Adrian Waller and went down to the English left-hander, Sandhu slumped to an identical 1-3 defeat to
Egypt's world no. 20 Mazen Hesham at the CCI courts. Mangaonkar, ranked 52nd in the world, had lost to the English player - world no. 26 - in the final of last week's
NSCI Open, the first tournament of the 2015 JSW Indian Circuit, and fell to Waller for the second time in five days.
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Mangaonkar, who constantly argued over line calls with the umpire, was beaten 13-11, 11-4, 7-11, 11-5 in 81 minutes by his English rival who also moved into the quarter-finals. Later, 21-year-old Hesham defeated 26-year-old Sandhu - ranked 56th in the world - 5-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-5 to further dilute the home country's challenge in the tournament.
Mangaonkar had his chances as he held game-balls at 10-8 in the opening game before Waller drew level and then won over extra points with a fore-court winner. Waller, who played a very tight game that kept Mangaonkar out of the middle from the start, continued to dominate in the second one. Mangaonkar, docked a point for
racquet abuse, worked for openings but committed a spate of errors to drop it.
The third game saw a reversal, as Mangaonkar shot ahead 5-0, then 9-1 thanks to some careless shots by Waller. The Englishman clawed his way back to 7-10 before the Indian clinched it with a drop shot. But Waller who was back on top for the fourth game, though, frustrated Mangaonkar at every turn to win the match.
"It's a terrible feeling to lose in the same way two times in two weeks. I don't know if I played better (than in the NSCI Open final), but I definitely got more points off him," said Mangaonkar after his loss.
"As the match progressed, my accuracy became lower and lower; that's where he got me. I was always on the defending end. I need to work on being calm and composed on court, but also tactically smart." "It was almost exactly the same as Sunday. It was a tough first game, very important for me. I saved two game balls and that gave me momentum to go on and win the second game too," said Waller.
"Mahesh came out absolutely firing in the third. But I managed to come back and get momentum. And even though I lost it, I carried the momentum into the fourth and managed to close it out. I'm happy to win again," he explained. Tournament top-seed Borja Golan of Spain had the edge in the match against qualifier Mohamed Reda of Egypt and won 11-6, 11-3, 15-13 in just 47 minutes.
Results (1st round): Karim Ali Fathi (EGY) beat Nicolas Mueller (SUI) 7-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-5; Adrian Waller (ENG) beat Mahesh Mangaonkar (IND) 13-11, 11-4, 7-11, 11-5; Borja Golan (ESP) beat Mohamed Reda (EGY) 11-6, 11-3, 15-12; Mohamed Abouelghar (EGY) beat Ben Coleman (ENG) 10-12, 13-11, 8-11, 11-6, 11-3; Mazen Hesham (EGY) beat Harinderpal Sandhu (IND) 5-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-5.
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