In his first SDA tournament since winning the World Doubles title for England in September, John Russell and new partner Scott Arnold both claimed their first career PDC Cup title at Piedmont Driving Club in Atlanta, Georgia.
Russell & Arnold first experimented with their partnership in the final tournament of the 2016-2017 SDA season, in which they stormed to the Buffalo Club Pro Doubles without dropping game.
The Russell & Arnold partnership would make it two for two in Atlanta, enduring a grueling Saturday that saw them come back from 2-1 down both in the Semifinals against four seeds Jonny Smith & Viktor Berg, and again just three hours later against top seeds and defending champions Mike Ferreira & Yvain Badan.
In total, Russell & Arnold’s court time on Saturday clocked in around four and a half hours.
“Saturday was a marathon day of squash for us,” Russell said. “We had a game plan going into both matches and we believed that if we could keep focused on that and not get sucked into something different, we’d have a great chance of winning. Our team chemistry definitely improved as the event progressed and we definitely figured out each others strengths weaknesses.”
Arnold rekindles his Canadian championship-winning partnership with Robin Clarke at the Jim Bentley Cup this weekend, which Russell will sit out.
“It feels great to win in our first event of the season,” Russell added. “I’d like to thank Ahmed Hamza and all the tournament committee members for running such a fantastic event. It’s my first time playing the event and will definitely be back next year.”
Watch PDC Cup replays below.