May 17, 2024 Nolan Hughes

Kyle Troup cannot be stopped.

The 32-year-old has won 11 straight televised singles matches in PBA Tour events dating back to last season. The two-time defending PBA Playoffs champion has also won 10 straight matches in the Playoffs.

Earlier this season, Troup took down the Big Three — EJ Tackett, Jason Belmonte and Anthony Simonsen — to win the U.S. Open. Weeks later, again in Indiana, he eliminated the ascending Zach Wilkins; resurgent Marshall Kent; and Tackett, the Hoosier Daddy himself, to win his second title of the season.

The last player to beat Troup on TV, Belmonte in the 2023 PBA Tournament of Champions, has already been eliminated from the Playoffs by Bill O’Neill. O’Neill, coincidentally, is the last player to beat Troup in the Playoffs.

Troup’s greatest adversary this season, as he will be the first to admit, has been himself.

“I'm not too happy with the season,” Troup said following the PBA Playoffs quarterfinals. “Obviously I’m extremely happy about winning the major and the other win. But with all those missed cuts, poor performances and mental lapses in certain tournaments, I feel like I’ve still got a lot to work on in the offseason. That’s why I'm trying to really stay locked in for any events I get to bowl this season because I kind of pissed away a few of the events earlier in the year.”

As seen in his Round of 12 and quarterfinal victories over Chris Via and Anthony Simonsen, respectively, Troup is fully locked in. In his own words, more than 100% is what it will take to defeat the next man in his path to a Playoffs threepeat.

Perhaps the only man who has his number.

 

“We've been waiting for this moment for a long time,” said Jesper Svensson, Troup’s opponent in Sunday’s semifinal match.

Svensson and Troup, of course, have a long history on the tour as close friends and teammates.  They are perennial threats to win the Roth/Holman PBA Doubles Championship, so much so that the 2017 and 2020 champions have their sights set on eventually getting the tournament renamed in their honor.

They finished fifth in the 2024 event. It was Svensson’s best finish of the season and his only top-10 performance to that point, and signaled the turning point of his season. The powerful Swede said he’s satisfied with how he persevered through a season in which the results didn’t necessarily match his execution level.

“I'm really happy with how I have stayed in it mentally,” Svensson said. “When the World Series came around and the left (side of the lane) was really good, I was one of the lefties that had very good success. To be able to push through in those situations where they kind of throw you a bone, you've got to be able to be sharp enough to take that opportunity. If not, I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't have a chance for this title.”

Svensson ranked fifth during the regular season with a 225.26 average and earned nine top-25 finishes in 13 title events. An exemplary World Series of Bowling XV, in which he finished fourth in the Scorpion Championship and third in the World Championship, propelled him to 10th in points.

In his career, Svensson owns 11 PBA Tour titles and was the first player to win five titles by the age of 21; Troup is up to 12 titles after his wins this season.

Despite being two of the game’s top stars over the past decade, the two have never met in a televised PBA Tour title event match.

“We bowled a PBA Junior doubles match against each other, but we don't really count that,” Troup said after advancing to the Playoffs semifinals. “We did bowl a USA vs. The World singles match against each other — he mopped me there — but, you know, that's a team thing…”

“I hear all these excuses,” Svensson interrupted before mocking Troup in only the way that close friends can:

“Oh yeah, we did bowl here. Well that one was that. I was hurt. And then it was Tuesday.”

As Troup is quick to dismiss and Svensson is even quicker to remind, the two have a well-documented history against one another.

“It’s really nothing new that I have bragging rights,” Svensson said after defeating Troup in the 2023 USA vs. The World singles match, their lone televised match in the United States. “I’ve got that 52 weeks a year. It feels good every time I extend it a little bit more. It was fun to finally bowl against him (in the U.S.). He’s running out of options now. It’s going to be interesting to see how long he’s going to make up excuses for losing.”

In the Weber Cup, a former annual event featuring the top stars from the United States and Europe, Svensson and Troup faced off 20 times between 2016 and 2021. Svensson boasts a 6-1 record in singles matches — with Troup’s lone victory coming in 2017 — and a 13-7 record overall.

“Obviously there are a lot of jokes and all that, but I know that when the lights come on and we're ready to bowl, I’m going to put my head down and try to beat him,” Svensson said. “Because at that point, he’s just an opponent even though we’re still friends off the lanes.”

“I wish (our match) could be for the title, but this is the next best thing,” Troup said. “One of us is going to get to bowl for the belt and $75k. I'm sure we're going to have a nice dinner regardless of the result and it's going to be a fun family weekend for us.”

The PBA Playoffs Finals begin Sunday at 2 p.m. Eastern on FOX. Troup or Svensson will meet the winner of Bill O’Neill and David “Boog” Krol in the Race-to-Two championship match.