The second night of quarter-final action in the Delaware Investments U.S. Open at the Daskalakis Athletic Center at Drexel University provided the Philadelphia crowd with a somewhat mixed bag of matches.
The in-form British National Champion Laura Massaro eased past an out of sorts Rachael Grinham, the Aussie fourth seed unable to find anything like her true form, giving Massaro, in her own words, an easy 3/0 win.
Second seed Jenny Duncalf looked on course for a similarly straightforward win when she stood at 11/3, 10/5 against Annie Au, but a dramatic recovery as the Hong Kong youngster started to find her range meant that the English world number two had to work hard for a four-game win in a match that could easily have gone the distance.
Dutchman Laurens Jan Anjema, having already created an upset to reach the quarters, really took the game to third seed Amr Shabana, but the Egyptian fought back brilliantly from a game down, eventually getting the better of a tense and exciting finish to an extended fourth game.
The final match of the round was a more low key affair as sixth-seeded FrenchmanThierry Lincou also came from a game down to beat unseeded Malaysian Azlan Iskandar.
Quarter-Finals (bottom half):
[5] Laura Massaro (Eng) bt [4] Rachael Grinham (Aus) 11/3, 11/3, 11/7 (29m)
[2] Jenny Duncalf (Eng) bt Annie Au (Hkg) 11/3, 10/12, 11/8, 11/8 (49m)[4] Amr Shabana (Egy) bt Laurens Jan Anjema (Ned) 5/11, 11/6, 11/4, 15/13 (78m)
[6] Thierry Lincou (Fra) bt Azlan Iskandar (Mas) 6/11, 11/5, 11/5, 11/8 (56m)
Full details on the official site: www.usopensquash.com
