Kandra Scores Surprise Seattle Success by Nathan Clarke March 9, 2015 -
German World No.50 Raphael Kandra celebrated his first ever PSA World
Tour win over top seed Omar Abdel Meguid when he defeated the Egyptian
3-0 in the final of the Stratos Seattle Open, PSA Challenger 10
tournament.
Kandra, the event’s No.2 seed, reached his 16th PSA World Tour final
after surviving a close five-game semi-final battle with third-seeded
Indian Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu while Meguid, the world No.33, also
prevailed in a marathon semi, seeing off England’s fourth seed Declan
James 10-12, 11-6, 11-9, 12-14, 11-5 after 140-minutes to set up his
17th Tour final.
Ranked 17 places higher and having emerged victorious in their past two
meetings, Meguid was the firm favourite to taste glory in the final,
but Kandra leapt into action from the off to take the first game 11-6.
Meguid, clearly tired after the effort he put in the day before, found
it difficult to build any real momentum and Kandra took full advantage
of that to take the second game by the same margin.
24-year-old Kandra kept up the assault in the third and powered his way
through 11-6, 11-6, 11-7 to collect his second Tour title of the year –
an achievement only matched so far by Nick Matthew, the world No.3 from
England who last week won his second title of the year at the PSA World
Series Windy City Open in Chicago.
RESULTS: PSA Challenger 10 Stratos Seattle Open, Seattle, USA
