RESULTS:        Women's World Open Squash Championship, Belfast Boat Club, Belfast, Ireland

1st round:
[3] Rachael Grinham (AUS) bt Raneem El Weleily (EGY)                  9-1, 9-5, 8-10, 10-8 (53m)
[15] Rebecca Chiu (HKG) bt Laura Mylotte (IRL)                             9-1, 9-2, 10-9 (24m)
[10] Alison Waters (ENG) bt [Q] Rebecca Botwright (ENG)             9-1, 10-8, 9-5 (24m)
[7] Tania Bailey (ENG) bt Sharon Wee (MAS)                                 9-5, 9-1, 9-3 (28m)
[13] Shelley Kitchen (NZL) bt [Q] Tegwen Malik (WAL)                  9-4, 9-6, 9-5 (45m)
[4] Natalie Grinham (AUS) bt [Q] Jaclyn Hawkes (NZL)                 9-0, 9-1, 9-4 (28m)
[14] Natalie Grainger (USA) bt Pamela Nimmo (SCO)                      9-3, 9-3 ret.
[2] Vanessa Atkinson (NED) bt Dominique Lloyd-Walter (ENG)        9-2, 9-4, 9-0 (26m)

    … more to follow

England team-mates Tania Bailey and Alison Waters will meet in the second round of the Women's World Open Championship at the Ulster Hall in Belfast after straightforward straight games victories in today's (Wednesday) first round of the biggest ever squash event to be staged in Northern Ireland.

Seventh seed Bailey, the British National champion from Lincolnshire, brushed aside Malaysian Sharon Wee 9-5, 9-1, 9-3 in 28 minutes.  Earlier, on the same conventional plaster court at the Belfast Boat Club, tenth seed Waters, from London, despatched English qualifier Rebecca Botwright 9-1, 10-8, 9-5, in 24 minutes.

"It's nice to get a good game to start with," said a smiling Bailey afterwards.  "We can now both look forward to playing our next match on the all-glass court at Ulster Hall – it’s the court we all enjoy playing on," explained the 27-year-old England number one from Stamford.

"Sharon's one of the better unseeded players in the draw, though I haven't played her for a long time so I didn't know what to expect.  I couldn't afford to lose my concentration against her – and when I did, she took full advantage," added Bailey, ranked six in the world.

Bailey has a 100% record against Waters on the WISPA World Tour, but lost in five in their last meeting two months ago in a non-Tour clash. 

"I'm looking forward to it – I know it will be a good clean game," concluded Bailey.

Local interest in the event was reduced by a third in the afternoon session when Ireland's Laura Mylotte lost out in three games to Hong Kong's Rebecca Chiu.  The 31-year-old from Galway, who recently sustained a cartilage injury, was playing her first competitive match since the World Team Championships in September.

"I really enjoyed that – but she's a different class of player," said Mylotte after her 9-1, 9-2, 10-9 defeat by the reigning Asian Games champion. 

"If I'd sneaked the third, it might have been a different story," said Mylotte, who is the middle of a year off while playing full-time squash. 

"I look forward to getting some serious training in now – and getting my year off to a second start!"

When asked how it felt to be playing in the World Open in her home country, Mylotte said:  "It's the first time since I started playing when I was four that I've seen an event in our sport get so much attention here.  Let's hope it persuades a few more young people to come along and play squash."

Follow the action on the official website www.womensworldopen.com.