After his 1st round victory over Borja Golan (le), World No.27 Adrian Waller (ri) has now the chance to make the quarter finals of the Delaware Investments U.S. Open England’s Adrian Waller (ri) pulled off the biggest win of his career to date as he knocked out World No.7 Borja Golan (le) of the Delaware Investments U.S. Open in the 1st round of action at Philadelphia’s Drexel University.
The World No.27 scraped through a tense and attritional 92-minute encounter against the Spaniard, as he hold his nerve together at the end of the final game to get a 8-11, 12-10, 11-8, 7-11, 11-9 victory that sees him beat a top 10 ranked player on the PSA World Tour for the 1st time in his career.
“That was definitely the biggest win of my career to date,” said Waller. “I’ve never beaten a top ten player before in my career, so to do that in the opening round of a major tournament like the U.S. Open is very big for me.”
“I’m really looking forward to the second round now. In many ways the pressure is off me so I’m going to enjoy the match and hopefully I can put in another good performance.”
Waller will now take on Egyptian Mazen Hesham in the 2nd round on Monday after the 20-year-old survived a tough battle with Frenchman Lucas Serme during an opening day that also saw Leo Au of Hong Kong and Scotland’s Alan Clyne, who was bumped into the main draw following the withdrawal of World No.10 Karim Darwish ahead of the tournament, pull off surprise upsets against higher ranking opposition.
Clyne, the World No.38, claimed one of the biggest scalps of the day in the opening match of the tournament to see off England’s World No.23 Adrian Grant in emphatic fashion, taking the match 11-2, 13-11, 11-7, while Au, ranked World No.41, stunned World No.29 Gregoire Marche to take an equally impressive 11-7, 11-5, 11-6 win.
Elsewhere during the opening day of action Simon Rösner came through an epic battle against Mathieu Castagnet to secure his place in the second round while Australian Cameron Pilley saw off compatriot Ryan Cuskelly and the top two seeds, Gregory Gaultier and Mohamed Elshorbagy, eased through their opening match-ups against Mohamed Abouelghar and Greg Lobban, respectively.
1st round, top half results:
[1] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) bt [Q] Mohamed Abouelghar (EGY) 11-1, 11-1, 11-5 (30m)
Alan Clyne (SCO) bt Adrian Grant (ENG) 11-2, 13-11, 11-7 (52m)
[Q] Leo Au (HKG) bt Gregoire Marche (FRA) 11-7, 11-5, 11-6 (39m)
[6] Simon Rösner (GER) bt Mathieu Castagnet (FRA) 11-2, 11-8, 6-11, 5-11, 11-5 (82m)
Adrian Waller (ENG) bt [5] Borja Golan (ESP) 8-11, 12-10, 11-8, 7-11, 11-9 (91m)
Mazen Hesham (EGY) bt [Q] Lucas Serme (FRA) 6-11, 11-8, 11-5, 7-11, 11-9 (77m)
Cameron Pilley (AUS) bt [Q] Ryan Cuskelly (AUS) 11-9, 11-9, 11-4 (69m)
[3] Mohamed Elshorbagy (EGY) bt [Q] Greg Lobban (SCO) 11-2, 11-7, 11-7 (34m)
