John Russell & Scott Arnold ended the 2016-2017 SDA season on a high note with a perfect run to the inaugural SDA Silver Buffalo Club Pro Doubles title in upstate New York.
The Buffalo Club’s doubles court is only four years old, and in addition to hosting the 2016 National Doubles, brought professional doubles back to Buffalo for the first time in the SDA era with this $25,000, eight-team main draw event.
Russell, world No. 6, & Arnold, world No. 9, led the draw as the top seeds and ran away with the title with three, three-game victories. The draw did have a big upset in the form of Canadian’s Will Mariani & Thomas Brinkman, who upset two seeds Bernardo Samper & Raj Nanda in a five-game, first-round comeback after going down 2-0. The Canadians needed another five games in the semifinals to upset three seeds Imran Khan & Greg Park. In the final, Russell & Arnold halted their run 15-12, 15-3, 15-12.
The title marks Russell’s first title of the season in his fourth final appearance, and Arnold’s second in addition to February’s Baltimore Cup.
“It felt great finishing the season with a victory,” Russell said. “Scott played great all weekend and we gelled very well considering we’ve never played together before. Buffalo is a great squash town and we were treated like kings. Tom Hayes, head pro at the buffalo club, did a fantastic job organizing the event with all our possible needs catered for.”
Russell faced his fellow Englishman and 2015 World Doubles partner Clive Leach in the semifinals and will hope to defend his title at the 2017 World Doubles in St. Louis, September, 21-24.
“I’m looking forward to getting some summer training under my belt to get in the best possible shape to try and retain the world championship in September,” Russell said.
For more information on the 2017 World Doubles, visit www.worlddoubles.com.
Watch Buffalo Pro Doubles live stream replays on the SDA Youtube. View Buffalo Pro Doubles images in the SDA SmugMug gallery.