A slice of history in Aberdeen (North of Scotland Open, 28 Mar-2 Apr)

Mahesh Mangaonkar and Vikram Malhotra became the the first two Indians to contest a PSA Tour event final away from India. The two featured in the title round of the PSA world Tour event and in keeping with the seedings, second seed Vikram won but only barely. Such was the fight that third seed Mahesh gave. The final scores 3-11, 11-8, 6-11, 13-11, 11-4 tell the story of the great battle. An all-Indian final had come earlier but at home. Saurav Ghosal and Ritwik Bhattacharya had featured in two PSA events held in India. The event in Scotland saw Vikram making steady progress, beating a qualifier South African Tristan Eysele 11-6, 11-6, 11-8 first, then fifth seed Evan Williams (NZL) 11-5, 11-5, 11-8 next to enter the semi-final. In the last four, Vikram set aside the challenge of seventh seed Malaysian Eain Yow Ng, the 2016 world junior champion 11-4, 11-7, 6-11, 11-2. On the other hand, Mahesh had a tougher time and tougher opponents. He accounted for Pakistan’s Israr Ahmed 14-12, 12-14, 11-2, 11-4 in the first round. Then, he defeated sixth seed Jan Van Den Herrewegen (Bel) 11-6, 11-3, 4-11, 11-6 for a place in the semi-final. Mahesh moved into the final beating top seed Richie Fallows (Eng) 10-12, 11-8, 13-11, 11-3.