Mangaonkar goes down fighting to Pak rival in semis

The Indian challenge in the USD 25,000 CCI-PSA International Squash Championship came to an end here today when Mahesh Mangaonkar went down fighting to Pakistan's Nasir Iqbal in the semi finals.
Mangaonkar, the world no. 75, who had upset second seed and former world no. 7 Ong Beng Hee yesterday in the quarters, could not do an encore against the Asian senior champion and Pak no. 1 Iqbal and went down in four games at the Cricket Club of India's glass-backed courts.
Iqbal won 11-8 11-8 11-13 12-10 in a protracted battle to earn a meeting in tomorrow's final with Egypt's impressive qualifier and former world junior champion Ali Farag who ousted compatriot Zahed Mohamed in the other semi final.

Farag, who shocked top seed Saurav Ghosal of India in the opening round and then packed off eighth seed Kristian Frost Olesen of Denmark in the quarter-finals, continued his impressive run to upset sixth seed Mohamed 11-7 15-13 10-12 11-6 after a 56-minute battle.