Schnell Slaloms Past Malhotra to Claim Seattle Open Title

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Canadian No.2 Andrew Schnell continued his excellent start to 2016 by lifting a second successive PSA World Tour title at the Samson Seattle Open – beating unseeded Indian Vikram Malhotra to capture the PSA M10 crown.

Schnell, seeded third for this event, opened his tournament with a straightforward victory against compatriot Nick Sachvie before enhancing his title credentials with wins over England’s Ashley Davies and Pakistan’s Shahjahan Khan. Malhotra, who is ranked 43 places below World No.82 Schnell in the world rankings, beat a trio of seeds to book his final berth including a superb triumph against second seed Nathan Lake in the quarter-final.

It was Schnell who had the upper hand for much of the opening exchanges with his length and shot selection enabling him to engineer some breathing space and he duly took the opener.

Malhotra dug in his heels through and responded impressively to come out on top of a frenetic second game that could have gone either way as he looked to emulate, in part, his stunning showing in November’s Betty Griffin Memorial Florida Open where he fought all the way from qualifying to down the number three seed Arthur Gaskin at that tournament.

However, he was unable to back up his second game display as fatigue began to settle in and Schnell took full advantage, closing out victories in games three and four to complete the win with an 11-7, 9-11, 11-7, 11-4 margin of victory and claim his second PSA World Tour crown of the year.

Result – Final: Samson Seattle Open 2016
[3] Andrew Schnell (CAN) bt Vikram Malhotra (IND) 3-1: 11-7, 9-11, 11-7, 11-4 (45m)