Blatchford Blasts Blake In Montreal

Teenagers Olivia Blatchford and Amanda Sobhy powerfully demonstrated the promise of US women's squash by confidently securing places in the quarter-finals of the Women's Atwater Cup, the WISPA World Tour Silver 20 event in its third year at Club Atwater in the Canadian city of Montreal.

But whilst 17-year-old sixth seed Sobhy romped to an anticipated 11-4, 11-1, 11-5 win over Canada's unseeded Alexandra Norman in 19 minutes, qualifier Blatchford scored a significant upset by ousting Ireland's No8 seed Aisling Blake 11-6, 11-5, 12-10.

The 18-year-old from New York will now face another surprise quarter-finalist Natalie Grinham. The unseeded world No34 from the Netherlands scored the biggest first round scalp by defeating Australia's fourth seed Donna Urquhart 11-5, 11-3, 11-8 - but the former world No2 is on a comeback trail after the birth of her first child last year.

The event's top two seeds progressed through to the last eight without dropping games. Favourite Vanessa Atkinson, the world No10 from the Netherlands, beat Guyana qualifier Nicolette Fernandes 11-4, 11-7, 11-8, while second-seeded New Zealander Jaclyn Hawkes defeated former US champion Latasha Khan 11-6, 12-10, 11-7.

Quarter-final line-up:
[1] Vanessa Atkinson (NED) v [7] Isabelle Stoehr (FRA)
[3] Joelle King (NZL) v [5] Samantha Teran (MEX)
Natalie Grinham (NED) v [Q] Olivia Blatchford (USA)
[2] Jaclyn Hawkes (NZL) v [6] Amanda Sobhy (USA)