Playing his third tournament in New Zealand, Mumbai’s Mahesh Mangaonkar made a confident start with a 11-5, 11-6, 11-6 win over Valantino Bong, a Malaysian qualifier to make an entry into the quarterfinal of the Squash XL Open, a PSA World tour event here on Thursday.

The sixth seeded Indian, keen to make an impact, needed just 26 minutes to once again prove his strength over the Malaysian. Valentino had met Mahesh three times earlier and lost all of them, the last being three years ago.