Samuel Osborne-Wylde came through a 67-minute battle on the opening day of the Canadian Men’s Open 2026, holding off Balazs Farkas over five games to advance into the second round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 22-year-old from England made a strong start to the contest, winning the opening two games 11-5, 11-7, and looked to be in total control. However, this strong start didn’t hold until the end, as momentum began to swing in favour of his Hungarian opponent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The World No. 54 was able to launch a strong attack, winning the next two games 11-8 and 11-7, and was moving closer to securing an epic comeback on the opening day in front of the Calgary crowd. With momentum in favour of Farkas, it seemed that the fifth was set up to be one-way traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the Englishman had other ideas and was able to turn the tide of the contest with a flurry of winners, securing a place in the last 16 with an 11-5, 11-7, 8-11, 7-11, 11-4 scoreline. Osborne-Wylde will now face off against the No.5 seed Miguel Rodriguez in the second round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following the match, the 22-year-old said: “At 2-0 I thought I was playing some good squash, and it turned it to a battle quite quickly, a lot more quickly than I wanted it to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Obviously, I am happy to win, but I am definitely going to watch that back and have a look at where I went wrong in that third or fourth game.
“But credit has to go to Farkas you know, at 3-0\/4-0 in the third and fourth, a lot of people would have thrown it then but credit to him and he actually played his best squash when he was down so, yeah credit to him.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Osborne-Wylde will be joined in the second round by his compatriot Simon Herbert, who booked his place into the last 16 after a brutal five-game match against the home-crowd favourite David Baillargeon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Herbert was forced to come from behind after going one game down, and was pushed to the limit by the Canadian over 77-minutes, which included two tie-breaks, with the Englishman eventually coming out on top, winning 7-11, 12-10, 11-8, 10-12, 11-6
Elsewhere, Nathan Lake got his campaign up and running with an impressive three-game victory against David Bernet. In the opening game of the contest Lake was able to comeback from 6-9 down, winning the next five points, to win 11-9. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
From then on the World No.50 was able to build on this momentum, and was able to withstand any potential threats from his Swiss opponent, winning the tie 11-9, 11-8, 11-7 to progress to the last 16 where he will face No.1 Marwan ElShorbagy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other notable winners in the opening round included Nick Wall, who overcame Argentina’s Leandro Romiglio in a 54 minute battle winning 3-1, England’s Adrian Waller also beat his compatriot Tom Walsh in three straight games, and France’s Toufik Mekhalfi beat home favourite Connor Turk in a 47-minute encounter, winning 11-8, 11-8, 6-11, 11-3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Results <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Round One: <\/strong>Nathan Lake (ENG) bt. David Bernet (SUI) 3-0: 11-9, 11-8, 11-7 (52m); Ivan Perez (ESP) bt. Rory Stewart (SCO) 3-1: 11-7, 4-11, 11-4, 12-10 (64m); Adrian Waller (ENG) bt. Tom Walsh (ENG) 3-0: 11-6, 11-4, 11-7 (34m); Toufik Mekhalfi (FRA) bt. Connor Turk (CAN) 3-1: 11-8, 11-8, 6-11, 11-3 (47m); Nick Wall (ENG) bt. Leandro Romiglio (ARG) 3-1: 11-8, 11-9, 8-11, 11-4 (54m); Samuel Osborne-Wylde (ENG) bt. Balazs Farkas (HUN) 3-2: 11-5, 11-7, 8-11, 7-11, 11-4 (67m); Simon Herbert (ENG) bt. David Baillargeon (CAN) 3-2: 7-11, 12-10, 11-8, 10-12, 11-6 (77m); Mohamed ElSherbini (EGY) bt. Salman Khalil (EGY) 3-2: 4-11, 11-7, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9 (64m)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Samuel Osborne-Wylde came through a 67-minute battle on the opening day of the Canadian Men’s Open 2026, holding<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-10090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-squash"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t