Lucky Loser Lake Lands Maiden Last Eight Gold Berth

England's Nathan Lake - a 'Lucky Loser' after the late withdrawal of the event's No.2 seed - is into a maiden PSA World Tour Gold quarter final after defeating USA's Shahjahan Khan in the last match of the third day's play at the Houston Open in Texas.

The English left-hander was given a slot in the second round of the first Tour event of the New Year at Houston Squash Club due to the late withdrawal of world No.3 Mohamed Elshorbagy - Lake having lost his first round match to Egypt's Youssef Soliman

The world No.38 was meeting Khan on Tour for the fourth time - neither having reached the last eight of a Gold level tournament before. Lake had won their previous three meetings, which included a victory in the final of the Wakefield PSA, a Challenger 10 level tournament, just prior to Christmas last year.

Lake produced a great display of squash, and after winning the first game on a tie-break, he extended his winning streak over the sole US player in the event with a 13-11, 11-4, 12-10 victory in 54 minutes.

"Absolute rollercoaster," said Lake later. "I didn't know how to feel, obviously very disappointed to lose to [Youssef] Soliman so close.

"Then yesterday, I didn't know whether to feel pressure that I was back in the tournament, guilty that I was back in, whether I should feel upset that I lost the day before. It's weird, but I am really happy to have taken advantage of it and won in three.

"Looking forward to it. England v France is always good fun, but of rivalry there from over the years. Just looking forward to playing on this court again, loving the club, great to see a new facility. Looking forward to the battle, he [Greg Marche] played really well today so it will be a good challenge, a good chance to hopefully play some good squash."

The closest match of the day's play saw Egypt's Mazen Hesham get the better of Switzerland's Nicolas Mueller in a fifth game tie-break after both players had their chances to move through to the last eight.

It was a slow start from the Egyptian, as he quickly lost the first game, but Hesham rallied to win the next two games and hold the advantage in the tie, but the Swiss No.1 would not give up.

Mueller secured the fourth to send the match into a decider, where eventually, after several match balls, Hesham was finally able to get over the line, with the No.6 seed making it into the quarter finals.

"It was really tough today and I had to work until the end," Hesham explained.

"To be honest, I'm not happy with the way I performed today, I can perform much better than this. All credit to Nicky, he pushed me really hard and he played the right game plan. Not to take anything away from him, but I expected more from myself.

"But a win is a win and I'm happy to win in a tournament like this, it's very close to my heart. I know everybody here, it's like a second home here, so it's really good to win in front of them. I'll focus on the next round now and see how it goes."

Hesham will now face world No.7 Marwan Elshorbagy for a place in the semi-finals, after his fellow countryman defeated Mexico's Cesar Salazar in straight games. Frenchman Gregoire Marche is the other man into the last eight after the third day's play, after defeating Egyptian Omar Mosaad in three games.