Waller Claims Biggest Career Win At US Open

England's Adrian Waller, the 24-year-old World No27 from Enfield, pulled off the biggest win of his career to date to take Borja Golan, the world No7, out of the 2014 Delaware Investments US Open during the opening round of action at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Waller scraped through what was a tense and attritional 92-minute battle against the Spanish national champion, coming from behind early in the encounter to hold his nerve in a nail biting final game and eventually seal an impressive 8-11, 12-10, 11-8, 7-11, 11-9 victory that sees him beat a top ten ranked player on the PSA World Tour for the first 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, so to do that in the opening round of a major tournament like the US Open is very big for me.

"I've been in good situations before against big players and it's never gone the right way for me. You have to just try and keep focused on your own game, not get too caught up in the moment and it was great to come out on the winning side.

"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 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 pull off surprise upsets against higher-ranked opposition.

Clyne, the world No38 who was bumped into the main draw following the withdrawal of world No10 Karim Darwish on the eve of the tournament, claimed one of the biggest scalps of the day to see off England's world No23 Adrian Grant in emphatic fashion, taking the match 11-2, 13-11, 11-7. Meanwhile Au, ranked 41 in the world, stunned world No29 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. The top two seeds, Gregory Gaultier and Mohamed Elshorbagy also prevailed - with wins over Mohamed Abouelghar and Greg Lobban, respectively.