Home hero David Palmer (pic) defied a tenacious opponent and an ankle injury in the 5th game to claw his way into the 2nd round of the Australian Open after beating Malaysia’s Azlan Iskandar 14-12, 11-9, 5-11, 9-11, 11-8 in Canberra. At 7-5 in the decider Palmer twisted his ankle, took an injury break to come back and closing out an epic 1st round encounter after 106 minutes. In the day’s major upset, Dutchman Laurens Jan Anjema played superb squash to down 7th seeded Frenchman Thierry Lincou, after coming back from 1 game down to record his 14-16, 11-9, 14-12, 11-5 win over the former world No1. Remaining 1st round results (top half): [1] Nick Matthew (ENG) bt Stephen Coppinger (RSA) 11-7, 11-8, 11-9 (48m); Ong Beng Hee (MAS) bt [Q] Martin Knight (NZL) 5-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-4 (60m); Julian Illingworth (USA) bt Nicolas Mueller (SUI) 11-6, 11-7, 7-11, 11-9 (70m); Tom Richards (ENG) bt Ryan Cuskelly (AUS) 11-9, 11-8, 11-5 (49m); [Q] Max Lee (HKG) bt [Q] Matthew Karwalski (AUS) 6-11, 11-8, 12-10, 11-7 (59m); [3] Karim Darwish (EGY) bt [Q] Zac Alexander (AUS) 11-8, 11-13, 11-2, 11-6 (49m).
