Mangaonkar sails into last eight of Auckland squash tourney

India's Mahesh Mangaonkar today made a confident start to his campaign in the Squash XL Open in Auckland, with a fluent 11-5, 11-6, 11-6 win over Valantino Bong to reach the quarterfinal.

Playing his third tournament in New Zealand, Mangaonkar, seeded six, needed just 26 minutes to beat his rival, a qualifier from Malaysia, said a SRFI press note here.

The Indian maintained a clean slate in his head-to-head matches against the Malaysian with a fourth straight win. Bong had also lost all his three earlier meetings with Magaonkar, the last being three years ago.

The Indian had in recent times lost in the final of the New Zealand International Classic in Palmerston North and faltered in the quarters of the NZ Southern Open squash tournament.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)