Charlottesville Open: Wall & Lake to Contest All-English Final

An English winner is guaranteed in the Charlottesville Open 2023 as both Nick Wall and Nathan Lake claimed semi-final wins to progress to the Challenger 30 finals in Virginia, USA.

Nick Wall had scored a big upset in the previous round, taking out top seed Leonel Cardenas in four games to reach the final four, whilst Lake needed just three games to end the impressive run of the unseeded Juan Camilo Vargas.

Wall then faced Canada’s David Baillargeon for a spot in the final, this would be the fourth time that the pair have met on the PSA Tour, with Wall holding a 3-0 lead. After the Canadian captured the first game 11-9, the Englishman responded well and imposed himself on the T to keep the No.8 seed behind him. His efforts were rewarded as he claimed the next two games to take a 2-1 lead.

Baillargeon fought back impressively and started to counter Wall at the front of the court, this in turn forced Wall into some errors which allowed Baillargeon to take the game 11-9 and force a fifth. The fifth game was tight all the way to 7-6 but the Englishman moved to 8-6 and never looked back, he set himself up with three match balls and converted on the second attempt to take a place in the final.

Lake and Vargas met earlier this year at the Squash on Fire Open in Washington, a comfortable 3-0 win for the Englishman was the result on that day and today’s semi-final in Charlottesville matched.

One of Lake’s great strengths is his accuracy and precision on the court, his squash brain is another. He used both of these to perfection as he controlled Vargas in all areas of the court, making it difficult for the Colombian to string any consecutive points together. After winning the opener 11-6, Lake continued to look impressive as he claimed the next two games both 11-7 to move into a 17th final on the PSA Tour.

Results: Semi-Finals
[6] Nick Wall (ENG) bt [8] David Baillargeon (CAN)3-2: 9-11, 11-4, 11-7, 9-11, 11-8 (62m)
[3] Nathan Lake (ENG) bt Juan Camilo Vargas (COL)3-0: 11-6, 11-7, 11-7 (33m)

Draw: Final
[6] Nick Wall (ENG) v [3] Nathan Lake (ENG)