Finitsis on Form to Finish off Mangaonkar in Australia

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World No.80 Steven Finitsis came up with a huge shock in the second round of the Australian Open, PSA M25 tournament as he mounted a magnificent comeback from two games down to defeat sixth seed Mahesh Mangaonkar.

Mangaonkar, the Indian No.2 and winner of four PSA World Tour titles, came flying out of the traps with some swashbuckling squash to open up what seemed like an unassailable lead against a player ranked 30 places below him in the World Rankings.

However, Finitis demonstrated a great deal of mental fortitude to dig in and wrestle back control of the match, eventually prevailing in a 7-11, 4-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-7 victory to seal his participation in the quarter-final.

His reward is a testing encounter with number three seed Ryan Cuskelly after the recent Victorian Open winner overcame Tayyab Aslam in a comfortable 3-0 victory while there was also a surprise win for Paul Coll who defeated Greb Lobban.

Tournament favourite Cameron Pilley is also through to the quarter-final stage after sweeping past Malaysia’s Sanjay Singh Chal. The Australian No.1 survived a tightly-contested opening game to rise to a straight games victory.

Pilley goes up against Rex Hedrick next with a potential semi-final clash against either Cuskelly or Finitsis on the cards for the winner, while Nafiizwan Adnan came through a gargantuan fixture against Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu to set up a quarter-final encounter with Nasir Iqbal.

Results – Second Round: Australian Open 2015
[1] Cameron Pilley (AUS) bt Sanjay Singh Chal (MAS) 3-0: 12-10, 11-8, 11-6
[8] Rex Hedrick (AUS) bt Evan Williams (NZL) 3-1: 8-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-1
Steven Finitsis (AUS) bt [6] Mahesh Mangaonkar (IND) 3-2: 7-11, 4-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-7
[3] Ryan Cuskelly (AUS) bt Tayyab Aslam (PAK) 3-0: 11-9, 11-7, 11-7
[4] Leo Au (HKG) bt Zac Alexander (AUS) 3-2: 7-11, 11-3, 5-11, 11-9, 11-1
Paul Coll (NZL) bt [7] Greg Lobban (SCO) 3-0: 11-7, 11-6, 11-7
[5] Nasir Iqbal (PAK) bt Farhan Zaman (PAK) 3-2: 11-6, 8-11, 11-4, 4-11, 11-8
[2] Nafiizwan Adnan (MAS) bt Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (IND) 3-2: 11-4, 7-11, 11-4, 13-15, 11-9

Draw – Quarter-Final
[1] Cameron Pilley (AUS) v [8] Rex Hedrick (AUS)
Steven Finitsis (AUS) v [3] Ryan Cuskelly (AUS)
[4] Leo Au (HKG) v Paul Coll (NZL)
[5] Nasir Iqbal (PAK) v [2] Nafiizwan Adnan (MAS)