India’s Vikram Malhotra, the top seed went down in a nerve-wracking final against the second seed Auguste Dussourd of France in the Nash Cup 2019 PSA challenger event in London, Canada on Saturday.
The scoreline 6-11, 11-5, 11-4, 5-11, 11-9 is a reflection of how close the title 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 sustain the tempo. The long duel (the match eventually went 68 minutes) 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 in the end.
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.