Major achievements for East Glos squash pros Lake and Ford
Reproduced from psaworldtour.com with permission.
Tom Ford (L), Nathan Lake (R)
East Glos squash pro Nathan Lake has been announced as Professional Squash Association (PSA) Player of the Month for May.
This comes after a breakthrough month that saw Lake (pictured above right) win his first ever career title, before adding a second just weeks later. Lake, 22, who turned pro in 2010 and coaches at East Glos Club, celebrated his 60th appearance on the PSA World Tour in style at the beginning of the month by competing in his first ever final – at the Keith Granger Memorial, PSA Challenger 5 tournament, in Cape Town.
This proved to be a confidence boost as he then followed that up to win his second tour title at the Rathbones Jersey Squash Classic, where he downed top seeded Joel Makin en-route to the title-decider when he swept aside Ashley Davies.
“I am really pleased to win my second PSA event in 4 weeks,” said Lake after collecting the Jersey title. “I have played in this event before but never won a match, so to come back to Jersey and win is a good feeling.”
Buoyed by his recent results Lake will now be hoping to complete a fine trio of triumphs when he lines up for the forthcoming Select Gaming Kent Open which takes place from June 4-7.
Tom Ford reaches final of Switzerland Open Tournament
Cheltenham-based squash player Tom Ford (pictured above left) was runner up in the Sekisui Open in Kriens, Switzerland last weekend.
World No.75 Kristian Frost Olesen overcame Ford in a titanic 107 minute final to lift the title. In the lead up to the final Ford, seeded number three, dropped just one game as Jan Van Den Herrewegen, Tim Weber and Lyell Fuller were felled by the 21-year-old.
With the third and fourth seeds meeting in the final, the showpiece event seemed destined for the long run and a series of gruelling rallies seemed to justify that expectation. Olesen, who already has three titles to his name in Kriens, used his excellent fitness to navigate the first two games which he won 11-8 and 11-7 respectively.
Ford became more consistent in the next two games and, whilst the rallies remained long and punishing, he was taking control of the tee more and it showed as he levelled things up with victory in the third and fourth games.
With Olesen in danger of a capitulation, the London-born Danishman battled fatigue to see out the match with an 11-8, 11-7, 7-11, 7-11 and 11-5 victory to lift his third PSA World Tour title of 2015.
RESULTS:
[3] Kristian Frost Olesen (DEN) bt [4] Tom Ford (ENG) 3-2: 11-8, 11-7, 7-11, 7-11, 11-5 (107m)