Hong Kong: India’s Vikram Malhotra was the hero on the opening day of the main draw competitions in the HKFC International Squash tournament, a major PSA world tour event here on Wednesday.
Coming into the main draw after going through two rounds of qualifying matches this US-based Indian knocked out the top seed Zahed Mohamed of Egypt in a sensational first round match. Zahed is a world ranked 20 player, over 40 rungs above the Indian but that did not matter as Vikram playing by far his best squash in recent times, grabbed the first game over extra points, took the next one relatively easily. A fight back by the Egyptian queered the pitch before Vikram finished it off in style 13-11, 11-7, 6-11, 11-8. The match lasted 46 minutes. However for the other qualifier, Mahesh Mangonkar things did not go his way. He lost in the first round to the third seed Omar Mosaad of Egypt. The Egyptiahn won 11-3, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6.
In the women’s section, the two leading ladies of India Joshna Chinappa , seeded three and Dipika Pallikal Karthik , seeded six had smooth sailing. Joshna defeated qualifier Li Sum Yin of Hong Kong 11-4, 11-4, 11-6 while Dipika accounted for another qualifier Tang Yan Yi,also of Hong Kong, 11-6, 11-4, 11-9.
