De Lierre Survives First Totally Tie-Break Tussle

Canadian Shawn De Lierre made his mark in squash history when he won his first round match in the Tech Valley Open in Albany, USA - becoming the first player to win all his games in tie-breaks.

Introduced by the Professional Squash Association (PSA) at the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Open in August, the new scoring system on the men's circuit brings in tie-breaks when the game score reaches 10-10 - the winner being the first to gain a two point advantage thereafter.

Fifth seed De Lierre beat unseeded Australian Mark Andrew Burke 11-10 (2-0), 11-10 (2-0), 11-10 (2-0) - and now faces England's No2 seed Mark Heather in the quarter-finals.

Two of the top four seeds crashed out of the event in notable first day upsets: Switzerland's Lars Harms, the No3 seed, won his opening game - but England's Sam Miller stormed back to claim a 5-11 11-8 11-8 11-8 victory and an unexpected place in the last eight.

New Zealand's Callum O'Brien, now based in the Netherlands, also let slip a first game lead before bowing out 6-11 11-6 11-10 11-3 to Australian Aaron Frankcomb.

1st round:
[1] Mike Corren (AUS) bt Paul Davis (AUS) 11-6, 11-7, 11-8
[6] Ian Power (CAN) bt Patrick Chifunda (ZAM) 11-8, 11-2, 11-8
Sam Miller (ENG) bt [3] Lars Harms (SUI) 5-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-8
Morten W Sorensen (DEN) bt [7] Nicholas Kyme (BER) 6-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-3, 11-5
[8] Laurent Elriani (FRA) bt Ben Howell (ENG) 11-0, 11-9, 11-2
Aaron Frankcomb (AUS) bt [4] Callum O'Brien (NZL) 6-11, 11-6, 11-10 (4-2), 11-3
[5] Shawn De Lierre (CAN) bt Mark Andrew Burke (AUS) 11-10 (2-0), 11-10 (2-0), 11-10 (2-0)
[2] Mark Heather (ENG) bt Jesse Engelbrecht (ZIM) 11-7, 11-10 (2-0), 11-9