Ouseph clinches Swedish Masters title

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Hounslow’s Rajiv Ouseph celebrated his first title in 18 months as he won the Swedish Masters on Sunday.

The tournament’s top seed beat Spanish sixth seed Pablo Abian 21-15, 21-17 in Uppsala.

Ouseph, who this week moved up three places to world number 24, last won a tour event at the Finnish Open in June 2013.

After comfortably beating Thomas Rouxel and Erik Meijs on Friday, Ouseph continued his serene progress by beating German qualifier Fabian Roth in the quarter-finals.

He was given a sterner test in the semis, dropping the first game against world number 81 Raul Must before hitting back to beat the Estonian 16-21, 21-10, 21-7.

In Sunday’s final, Ouseph got off to the better start but world number 53 Abian tracked him all the way and eventually pegged it back to 14-14.

But the Englishman made a habit of kicking on late in games in this tournament and repeated the feat by winning seven out of eight points to take it 21-15.

In game two, a run of four straight points saw Ouseph break out into an 11-5 lead, which proved too much for the Spaniard to recover.

Despite Abian reducing the lead to 18-15 at one stage, and then saving two match points, Ouseph held on.

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