PSA Challenger Squash | Top seed Vikram Malhotra loses in final

India’s Vikram Malhotra, the top seed, went down in a nerve-wracking final against the second seed French Auguste Dussourd in the Nash Cup 2019 PSA challenger event at the London squash and fitness club, Canada, on Saturday.

The scoreline 6-11, 11-5, 11-4, 5-11, 11-9 is a reflection of how close the championship match went. Vikram showed the enterprise early when he bounced back from a game down to go 2-1 up but the Indian could not continue his momentum. The long duel also told on Vikram as he slowly began losing the grip. The French player thus made his first match with the Indian a winning one after the clash which lasted an hour and eight minutes

Earlier, Vikram defeated the fourth seed Leonel Cardenas of Mexico in four games 7-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-6 in a well contested semi-final. The quarter-final saw him win 11-6, 6-11, 11-8, 9-11,11-3 win over Reiko Peter of Switzerland in a hard-fought encounter.

Melissa Alves beat England’s Jasmine Hutton 3-0 (11-9, 11-2, 11-6) to win the women’s bracket.  It’s only the second time in the event’s seven-year history that both a men’s and women’s bracket championships have been swept away by the same country. Two years ago, England’s Tom Richards and Millie Tomlinson took the top prizes home.