Challenger Events Round-Up: Herrera Ends Title Wait; Singh & Laksiri Claim Sri Lankan Glory

RGSA Open 2024 

Andres ‘Pipe’ Herrera ended his wait for a maiden PSA Tour title, beating Pedro Mometto 3-1 in the RGSA Open final. 

Top seed Herrera came into this final having played in six Challenger event finals, but had come up short on each occasion, most recently losing 3-0 to Sanjay Jeeva in April’s Bermuda Open final. 

This week, though, Colombian could hardly have hoped for a smoother route to the final, winning each of his three matches 3-0, beating Matheus Carbonieri, Juan Torres and Francesco Marcantonio. 

He also came into this final with the confidence of having beaten Mometto last season, a 3-0 win in round two of the I SPAC Open. 

Having taken game one 11-7 here, Herrera would’ve been targeting another straight-games win to complete a clean sweep of the week, but his Brazilian opponent – playing on home soil – had other ideas, taking the second 11-6. 

But from there, the Colombian regained control, closing out game three 11-8 before racing through the fourth for the loss of only three points, sinking to the floor in jubilation after getting the decision on match ball.

Reliance PSA Challenge 3 Tournament 2024 

Hometown favourite Ravindu Laksiri claimed his first title on Sri Lankan soil, winning the Reliance PSA Challenge 3 Tournament, which saw Indian prodigy Anahat Singh win the women’s event. 

Colombo’s own Laksiri is an 11-time Sri Lankan national champion with four PSA Tour titles to his name coming into this one, but none of those four successes had come in his native country. 

This was, in fact, Laksiri’s first ever PSA event in Sri Lanka, and he cruised through to finals day without looking troubled, not dropping a game and only once losing more than six points in any. 

Standing in his way on finals day was No.2 seed and fellow Sri Lankan Shamil Wakeel, and it was the 25-year-old underdog who took game one, taking advantage of what was perhaps a nervy start from Laksiri. 

But the No.1 seed came out firing in game two, shifting the momentum dramatically in his favour with an 11-2 win, and he carried that momentum through the next two games, dropping only five points in each to get his hands on a fifth PSA Squash Tour crown. 

There were no such nerves for women’s top seed Singh, who completed an utterly dominant week to clinch her fourth Tour title in her last five events. 

The 16-year-old was recently crowned Indian national champion for a second straight year, but was seeking her first PSA trophy outside of her home country, having reached the Dynam SQ-Cube Open in Japan a few weeks ago. 

Like Laksiri, Singh had barely been troubled in route to this final, dropping only 11 points in total in her previous two matches. 

Unlike Laksiri, though, she continued to control almost every point in her final against Chantithma Sinaly, recording a bagel in game one and only dropping five points across the next two games, ending the week having lost only 16 points in the entire event.