Pilley Punishes Grant In Wolverhampton Open Upset

Australian Cameron Pilley secured an unexpected place in the men's final of the Wolverhampton Open after upsetting second-seeded Englishman Adrian Grant in the semi-finals of the UK's biggest club-based squash championships in Wolverhampton, England.

Pilley, the No4 seed, will face England favourite Lee Beachill in the $30,000 3-star PSA Tour event final, while the women's WISPA World Tour Silver championship final will feature the top two seeds Madeline Perry, of Ireland, and England's defending champion Laura Lengthorn-Massaro.

Despite surviving a marathon two-hour quarter-final only 24 hours before, Adrian Grant showed remarkable powers of recovery to fight back from 2/0 down against Pilley to level the match. But the all-round challenge of the 24-year-old from New South Wales eventually proved too great as Pilley clinched his 11-5, 11-9, 3-11, 6-11, 11-8 victory after 90 minutes.

"Today was very hard and I had to dig really deep to win," said Pilley. "Adrian's performance was incredible in view of his match yesterday, and I'm just looking forward to giving it a good go tomorrow. The club has a great feel and atmosphere which really suits my game."

Lee Beachill, the three times British National Champion, twice Commonwealth Games gold medallist and former world No1, defeated Spain's defending champion Borja Golan 8-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-10 (3-1).

The young Spaniard, who has helped add a real international flavour to the event in which a total of seventeen nationalities have been represented, showed signs of fatigue - which allowed Yorkshireman Beachill to become increasing dominant as the match progressed.

"It's very different playing on traditional courts as opposed to the all-glass courts that I have been used to over the past few years, but I've enjoyed the challenge," said Beachill. "Winning is a habit and winning my three matches this week has helped to become more confident. Borja showed today just how competitive the men's game is and I am really pleased to have beaten him to reach the final."

Men's semi-finals:
[1] Lee Beachill (ENG) bt [3] Borja Golan (ESP) 8-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-10 (3-1) (84m)
[4] Cameron Pilley (AUS) bt [2] Adrian Grant (ENG) 11-5, 11-9, 3-11, 6-11, 11-8 (90m)

Women's semi-finals:
[1] Madeline Perry (IRL) bt [3] Dominique Lloyd-Walter (ENG) 9-4, 9-3, 9-7 (55m)
[2] Laura Lengthorn-Massaro (ENG) bt Orla Noom (NED) 9-1, 10-8, 9-0 (54m)