Squash: Grinham falls at first hurdle
Qualifier Nicolette Fernandes stunned Rachael Grinham in the opening round of World Open.
, a brilliant world champion only five years ago in Madrid, suffered a disheartening defeat in the World Open on Sunday when she missed three match points in a first round defeat to a qualifier.
The Australian s loss was harder to take because of the support for her conqueror, Nicolette Fernandes, a Canada-born, British-based 23-year-old from Guyana, whose 3-11, 6-11, 12-10, 11-5, 11-9 triumph brought a raucous response.
Grinham is renowned for her slow-balling, lob-and-drop skills and well-balanced movement, but she lost her chance to progress when she led 10-7 in the third game and allowed Fernandes to take five points in a row.
The longer the match went on the more Grinham was made to scurry and retrieve to stay in the match.
Briefly it looked as though she might turn the tables, saving three match points at 6-10 down in the decider before tinning her effort on the fourth.
The 36-year-old former champion s official biography states that her ambition is to "work out what to do when I retire from squash".
It was hard to avoid the conclusion that, even for a former champion with such an aesthetically pleasing style, the answer became more pressing with this result.
Fernandez, the world number 60, found it hard to believe she had managed her career-best win.
"You have to believe you can win, even if you don t expect to," she said.
"I don t even remember saving those match balls in the third game. But when I got to 10-6 in the fifth and she started coming back I told myself just to keep playing the way I played to get to get that point. I am very happy and thankful."
Fernandes next plays Laura Massaro, the third-seeded Englishwoman, who has already disposed of one qualifier, Catalina Pelaez, a Colombian, 11-4, 11-4, 11-6.
Massaro was joined in the second round by her sixth-seeded compatriot Jenny Duncalf, the World Open runner-up a year ago in Rotterdam, by the 10th-seeded Madeline Perry, the former British Open runner-up from Ireland.
Camille Serme, the 14th-seeded Frenchwoman, who finished runner-up in the Hong Kong Open a fortnight ago, also went through.
