Newly crowned US Open Masters Men’s 50+ Champion, Steve Wren (Sportheque), provided an excellent personal account of his experience at this years tournament. Steve outlasted Anders Wahlstedt winning 3-2 (11-5, 10-12, 8-11, 11-8, 11-7). With this win, Steve completed a triple-crown of championships in the last 12 months, winning the Canadian, British and US Open Masters championships in the 50+ division.
The ODSA would also like to congratulate Rudy Rodriguez (OAC) who won the consolation draw (5th place) in the Men’s 45+ division. Great tournament Rudy!
Steve was kind enough to provide a personal account of his final match with Anders:
This year was my 9th US Masters final, and it was one of the toughest I can recall, a real grinder that I’m fortunate to have come through on. Anders and I have played in this event a couple of times before, sharing 1 win apiece. With Anders he’s a strong Swede who used to play PSA with Jehangir/Jansher and the top Australasian/Brit/Pakistani (and our own Geno Turk) contingent on the world tour in the 80’s, he has a heart of a horse and this match was always going to be challenging. Yet I got a solid start and this time, from being 1-0 up in games and holding a cupla game points up in the second, I thought I had control of the match and was feeling good to shut Anders down. However I blew the 2nd game in just a few rallies, and while I got too conservative and was getting clearly beaten in the 3rd game, the match had quickly flipped in his favour; soon I was down in games, 1-2. In the 4th game it was cat and mouse, but I kept my nose ahead by mixing it up with a little chaos; slotting in a couple nicks, sneaked in a couple annoying reverse boasts, and helped with some errors from Anders. The match was turning back again my way and on my 2nd game point in the 4th, I took a risk, but saved some energy, by drilling the serve return into the nick. It pumped me so much and I felt right back in hunt again. Early in the 5th, the same point for point pattern happened, but Anders wouldn’t fade until I nudged ahead 6-4 and 9-6. At 10-7, my first match point after about an hour, I felt I had to go for it and use again what got me here… and that annoying reverse boast was the money shot to finish the match off.
Here is a short clip of championship point!