Masters Lifts Austrian Open Crown by Sean Reuthe photo alutchephotography.com
April 11, 2016 -
English number three seed Joshua Masters captured the second PSA World
Tour title of his career after a fine 3-0 victory over Portugal’s Rui
Soares in the final of the 2016 Austrian Open, PSA M5 tournament.
The
World No.83 from Maidstone opened up his event with wins over Czech
qualifier Daniel Mekbib and Bermuda’s Micah Franklin, before sweeping
past top seed Sebastiaan Weenink in style. Soares, meanwhile, came
through an almighty five-game semi-final with Frenchman Baptiste
Masotti, recovering from 2-1 down to book his place in the final.
Masters
came flying out of the traps and exhibited some fine control of the
court as he sought to seize the early initiative against an opponent
ranked 74 places behind him in the World Rankings.
He took the opener 11-7 and followed that up by doubling his advantage for the loss of five points in game two.
Soares
came out fighting in the third but it was to no avail as Masters held
firm to close out an 11-7, 11-5, 11-8 win to claim the title just three
days after his 21st birthday.
"I’m very happy, I have had a really good year so far," said Masters.
"I
played really well and it was a great tournament for me. Now I have to
put my racket aside for a bit to study for some exams at University. I
am not looking forward to it, but it has to be done."
