England’s three seed Ben Coleman and New Zealand’s two seed Martin Knight will contest the 2015 U.S. Pro Series Wasatch Funds Salt Lake City Open Friday night after winning their semifinals Thursday night at SquashWorks.
Coleman, a semifinalist in 2014, went one better this year defeating Finland’s top seed Henrik Mustonen in four games, 11-9, 11-8, 9-11, 11-5, in sixty-two minutes.
“Very happy to win of course,” Coleman said afterwards. “Tough game, I think it was a good game for the crowd and even better of course that I won.
“I fully expected to have to play my best squash out there. He’s the top seed, very high in the rankings and a very good player. I played how I wanted to play there, was happy that I came out strong in the fourth and was able to finish in four.”
Coleman will vie for the title against Knight, who defeated Pakistan’s Farhan Zaman 11-2, 11-8, 11-8.
“Last time I played Farhan I lost 3-1, he’ll be able to tell you more about that one, I try to blank it out,” Knight said after his victory. “He’s a very attacking player. He plays great shots in the front, he hits the ball hard, and can create some really good angles. Mostly I just tried to starve him of opportunities to take me in short. Worked really well in the first, got off to a great start. After that it was a brutal match, pretty tough start to finish. He was going for his shots, but made a few too many errors and I was able to squeeze it out.”
“Ben’s a very good player and I’ve played him just once which he won. He’s very solid, hits good lines, takes the ball in short well, and defends under pressure. It’s going to be interesting to break up his rythm and put him under pressure. It was a great match last time we played so I’m looking forward to it.”
“Last time I played Martin was about a year and a half ago, and I beat him in Canada, but it was a tough match,” Coleman said of his final opponent. “I fully expect another tough match though. He’s a bit older, and has a lot of experience. Hopefully that means he’ll be a bit more tired than me! I think it will be a great final.”
Friday’s final will take place at 7:30pm local time, 9:30pm ET. Follow live scoring on U.S. Pro Series Live powered by www.clublocker.com. To view a full image gallery by Morgan Leigh, click here.