Samuel Osborne-Wylde earned a place in the British Open squash championships after eliminating the No.1 seed Adrian Waller in a thrilling five-game qualifying battle 8-11, 11-4, 8-11, 14-12, 11-8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the start of the week, 64 players arrived at Solihull Arden with the hope of earning a spot in the main draw of the Diamond-level event, which will take place at \u2018the Rep\u2019 Theatre in Birmingham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And after three days of qualifying rounds, eight players have now booked their places in the main draw, which will begin on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amongst the names to qualify was hometown hero Samuel Osborne-Wylde, who toppled the No.1 seed Adrian Waller in a brutal 67-minute match, earning a place in the prestigious event for the first time in his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The England squash star, who lives in Birmingham, was pushed to his limits by Waller, who refused to give him any opportunity to build a sizeable lead. And with Waller taking the first game, 8-11, the 22-year-old was forced to dig deep and win the second game 11-4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the duo then sharing another two games, including a testing 14-12 winner for Osborne-Wylde, the contest would go down to a deciding fifth, which saw the No.8 seed claim the victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Booking his spot in Saturday\u2019s first round draw, Osborne-Wylde shared his excitement and pride in competing in the British Open for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI grew up watching this tournament, as English player it is probably the biggest tournament of the year. The fact that it is in Birmingham and I live two minutes down the road, makes it a lot more special for me. I feel very privileged to have made it through to the main draw.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He continued: \u201cI am feeling relieved, as Waller made the game so uncomfortable, and he can hit a winner from anywhere. But it was a mental battle more than a physical one. So I am proud to have got through it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the women\u2019s draw, French squash star Lauren Baltayan continued her winning form with an impressive straight-games 11-9, 11-8, 11-9 victory over Joelle King.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 19-year-old, who has been in strong form all week, beating England\u2019s Emily Coulcher-Porter and Millie Tomlinson, continued to show her dominance against an opponent 18 years her senior, with the young Frenchwoman taking a commanding 2-0 lead against the former World No.4, winning the opening two games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite taking a two-game lead, the French squash stars\u2019 dominance was put to the test in the third, with King taking an 8-0 lead and threatening a potential fourth game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Baltayan seemed to remain confident in her attack, as she was able to round off her strong performance with an incredible comeback in the third, wrestling the scoreline back from 8-0 down to win 11-9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After winning 11 of the last 12 points of the match, the 19-year-old French star said: \u201cJoelle [King] is a very experienced player, and was a World No.4 for a reason, and I knew it was going to be very tough and tricky to play her today, so I am very happy to have got the win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the final game, when I was 8-0 down, I knew that I had to stick to my game plan and focus more on playing a deep game, and not rush it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI stayed focused point-by-point, I told myself there was always the next game, but I am happy that I was able to do it in three.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Baltayan will now turn her attention to her first round match on Saturday, 30th May, as she prepares to make her debut against her compatriot Melissa Alves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With Baltayan set to make her debut at the British Open, she will also be joined by a strong group of Egyptian players who will also be making their first appearances at the prestigious event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amongst the qualifiers was 17-year-old Farida Walid, who continued her streak of winning all of her qualifying matches in straight games after defeating Noa Romero, 11-8, 11-7, 11-5 in 35 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Walid will also be joined in the main draw by her compatriots, 17-year-old Ruqayya Salem, who progressed after beating Hong Kong, China\u2019s Toby Tse in four games, and 18-year-old Adam Hawal, who advanced into the first round after beating the No.16 seed, Emyr Evans, winning 3-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elsewhere, Mohamed Gohar advanced into the British Open for the first time in his career after a brutal 71-minute five-game match against Perry Malik, after coming from behind to progress into the main draw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gohar, who had already become quite familiar with five-game matches, besting both Mohamed Sharaf and Balazs Farkas en route to the final, continued his winning momentum and collected yet another five-game victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joining Gohar in making a tournament debut is David Bernet, who advanced into the British Open for the first time by beating Dewald Van Niekerk in straight games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, Alina Bushma reached the British Open for the first time after fighting back against Jana Swaify to win a thrilling five-game contest, which sets up a round-of-64 clash against Lucy Turmel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RESULTS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Qualifying Final (Men\u2019s)<\/strong>: [10] David Bernet (SUI) bt. [14] Dewald van Niekerk (RSA) 3-0: 11-9, 11-7, 11-6 (55m); [8] Samuel Osborne \u2013 Wylde (ENG) bt. [1] Adrian Waller (ENG) 3-2: 8-11, 11-4, 8-11, 14-12, 11-8 (67m); Adam Hawal (EGY) bt. [16] Emyr Evans (WAL)3-0: 13-11, 11-6, 11-7 (50m); Mohamed Gohar (EGY) bt. [9] Perry Malik (ENG) 3-2: 13-11, 2-11, 8-11, 11-7, 12-10 (71m)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Qualifying Round Two\u00a0(Women\u2019s)<\/strong>: Farida Walid (EGY) bt. Noa Romero (ESP) 3-0: 11-8, 11-7, 11-5 (34m); [4] Lauren Baltayan (FRA) bt. [5] Joelle King (NZL) 3-0: 11-9, 11-8, 11-9 (42m); [15] Ruqayya Salem (EGY) bt. [11] Toby Tse (HKG) 3-1: 11-9, 9-11, 11-4, 11-7 (35m); [6] Alina Bushma (UKR) bt. [2] Jana Swaify (EGY) 3-2: 3-11, 11-6, 11-3, 6-11, 11-5 (54m)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Samuel Osborne-Wylde earned a place in the British Open squash championships after eliminating the No.1 seed Adrian Waller<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13205,"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":[7],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-13204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-squash"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Samuel-Osborne-Wylde-beats-Adrian-Waller.jpg",1600,973,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Samuel-Osborne-Wylde-beats-Adrian-Waller-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Samuel-Osborne-Wylde-beats-Adrian-Waller-300x182.jpg",300,182,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Samuel-Osborne-Wylde-beats-Adrian-Waller-768x467.jpg",640,389,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Samuel-Osborne-Wylde-beats-Adrian-Waller-1024x623.jpg",640,389,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Samuel-Osborne-Wylde-beats-Adrian-Waller-1536x934.jpg",1536,934,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Samuel-Osborne-Wylde-beats-Adrian-Waller.jpg",1600,973,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Samuel-Osborne-Wylde-beats-Adrian-Waller-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Samuel-Osborne-Wylde-beats-Adrian-Waller-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Samuel-Osborne-Wylde-beats-Adrian-Waller.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13204"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13206,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13204\/revisions\/13206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}