Mueller Takes Out Grant In Minnesota

Fourth seed Nicolas Mueller beat England's higher-ranked Adrian Grant in the first round of the Indian Summer Benefiting Beyond Walls to reach the quarter-finals of the inaugural PSA World Tour International 25 squash event at the Commodore Squash Club in St Paul, Minnesota, USA.

Despite being unseeded, 32-year-old Grant is currently ranked one place above the Swiss number one in the PSA world rankings.

But world No25 Mueller made a strong claim to overtake the Londoner again when he beat Grant, the former world No9, 11-4, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7.

US champion Christopher Gordon also recorded a major victory - his first over fellow countryman Julian Illingworth in all competitions over the past eight years. Gordon, the New York-born world No48 recovered from two games down to take out Illingworth 9-11, 11-13, 11-6, 11-3, 14-12 in 95 minutes.

"I'm extremely happy to have managed to win," said 27-year-old Gordon. "Julian played so well and was so accurate. He put me under tremendous pressure. I was glad to hold my nerve at the end of the fifth and to not make errors on big points.

"I'm very happy to win, because it is the first time I've been able to win against Julian since we were juniors."

US-based former English international Chris Walker added: "This match had it all. Jules played commanding squash in the first two, but let Chris take control in the third and fourth.

"The fifth game was up to expectations, both gave everything they had up through the last point. This signifies the changing of the guard. Chris had a lot to prove because he never beat Jules in Nationals, even though he won Nationals.

"This is a credit to US Squash. It was a great game of squash between the US number one and number two."

Quarter-final line-up:
[1] Alister Walker (BOT) v Shaun le Roux (RSA)
Adrian Grant (ENG) v Muhd Asyraf Azan (MAS)
[3] Laurens Jan Anjema (NED) v Christopher Gordon (USA)
[2] Tom Richards (ENG) v Eddie Charlton (ENG)