Velavan Senthilkumar beats top seed Greg Lobban to win Czech Open squash title

Indian squash player Velavan Senthilkumar has won the Czech Open title. In the final he beat Scotland's top seed Greg Lobban. The USD 35,000 event was a PSA Copper-level tournament.

Fourth seed Senthilkumar is currently ranked 42nd in the world, while Lobban is ranked 31st. The final score was 13-11, 11-5, 8-11, 11-7. It is Senthilkumar's 12th PSA Tour title and his second at Copper level. He won his first title in this category at the Budapest Open in August.

Senthilkumar had to get through a tough draw to reach the title. He began with a win over Brazil's Diego Gobbi in the second round. In the quarter-finals he then beat Argentina's eighth seed Jeremias Azan 11-3, 11-8, 11-7.

In the semi-finals he faced France's Auguste Dussourd. Senthilkumar won that match 11-7, 12-10, 11-1 and secured his place in the title match.

At the other end of the draw, Lobban was also in good form. He reached the final by beating France's Toufik Mekhalfi in straight games. The final was thus contested between the tournament's top seed and the fourth seed.

The final was a stern test for Senthilkumar, especially the first game, which went to the wire. Senthilkumar kept his nerve and won it 13-11. He had more control in the second game, which he won 11-5. Lobban fought back to take the third game 11-8, but Senthilkumar regrouped, won the fourth game 11-7 and lifted the trophy.

Before the Czech Open, Senthilkumar also performed strongly at the Asian Games 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, where he won two bronze medals. The Czech Open success shows the consistency of his performances on the PSA Tour. He is thus moving towards the Olympic debut of the sport at the Los Angeles 2028 Games.