Kijan Sultana... following in the footsteps of his sister Colette.

Brad Hindle Deguara chalked up his fifth victory in the VetPlus Malta International Squash Open at the Marsa Sports Club last weekend.

The Malta no.1 squash player was in a class of his own in the men’s open division racing through to the title without dropping set.

After being awarded a bye in the opening round, Hindle Deguara swept past Paul Borg in the quarter-final 11-3, 11-3, 11-2.

In the semi-finals, Hindle Deguara was up against Gary Nitschke and he found little difficulty to ease to a comfortable 11-4, 11-3, 11-4 victory.

His opponent in the final was Daniel Zammit Lewis who reached the title match after he overcame the challenge of Robert Sultana in the quarter-finals 11-3, 11-1, 12-10.

He then met Tom Merik but lost 11-5, 8-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-2 in a thriller but the Englishman suf-fered an injury and Zammit Lewis took his place in the final.

The contest between Malta’s top two players saw Hindle Deguara quickly stamping his authority for a 11-3, 11-4, 11-2 victory.

“It’s a great privilege for me to win the Malta Open,” Hindle Deguara said.

“I feel that my game is coming together. In the last few months I have been working so hard to improve my strengths and weaknesses and this tournament was a good warm-up for the upcoming European Team Championships in Croatia next week and participation in professional tournaments in the coming months.

“At the moment, my main goal is to reach peak performance and the results will take care of themselves.

“The most important thing for me at the moment is that I’m enjoying playing and developing my game more than ever.”

Johanna Rizzo was the winner of the women’s competition.

In the semi-finals, Rizzo had the better of Liz Said 11-3, 11-2, 11-7.

Her opponent in the final was 14-year-old Kim Cauchi who had ousted Polish player Aleksandra Scheibe 11-2, 11-4, 11-2 in the other semi-final.

Rizzo had to stave off the staunch challenge of young Cauchi before prevailing in a tense five-setter 8-11, 11-6, 6-11, 11-5, 11-6.

Cauchi, further underlined her strong potential when she completed an impressive double of victories in the junior categories after wins in the Under-15 and U-17 tournaments.

In the U-15 competition, Cauchi overcame Jordan Debono 11-3, 11-7 and 11-2 and then had the better of the same player in U-17 final after prevailing 11-3, 11-3, 11-5.

Another notable result was achieved by Kijan Sultana who at ten years of age won the Under-13 category.

Sultana, the young brother of Malta’s top women player Colette Sultana, beat Nina Bugeja 11-8, 11-2, 11-4 and then had the better of Nicholas Falzon 7-11, 6-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-9.