Arnold Survives Shaky Start In China Open Title Defence

Rachel Arnold's defence of her China Open title got off to a rocky start in Shanghai as the Malaysian dragged herself through to round two of the PSA Squash Tour Gold event at the Diamond Squash Center with a come-from-behind victory over Tsz-Wing Tong of Hong Kong.

Last year, No.6 seed Arnold upset the odds to win her biggest PSA Squash Tour title to date with a spectacular win over No.3 seed Farida Mohamed. This time, though, the 29-year-old cut a nervy figure on court, admitting afterwards that the pressure of following up that performance affected her play.

The world No.22, ranked 29 places above Tong, made a slow start to her China Open campaign, with Tong aggressive and punishing mistakes as the 33-year-old took a deserved lead 11-7 in game one.

Arnold, who on her best day can call upon some of the finest racket skills in the game, improved in game two. During that game, Tong motioned several times that she wanted to take an injury break but was not permitted to stop, with Arnold capitalising on Tong's boiling temper to level 11-7 and then move into the driver's seat with an 11-6 win in game three.

Tong battled back in game four and, despite still appearing to be carrying an injury, saved two match balls at 8-10 to force a tie-break.

Arnold managed to keep her composure, though, edging through to the second round with a 12-10 game four victory to tee up a meeting with No.5 seed Nele Gilis in round two.

"I'm not too pleased with how I played today," Arnold admitted afterwards. "I think the nerves got the better of me but I'm glad I pushed through. I wasn't expecting anything for myself last year and I think that paid off. I think I lost a bit of focus today [during the interruptions]."

Arnold will be joined by two of her compatriots in the next round of the women's event after sisters Aira Azman and Aifa Azman overcame fellow Malaysian Ainaa Amani and Ireland's Hannah Craig, respectively.

In the men's event, Alex Lau of Hong Kong and Sebastien Bonmalais of France contested two of the closer matches of the day, with Lau scoring a minor rankings upset over Switzerland's Nicolas Mueller and Bonmalais taking down Egypt's Karim El Hammamy in a fiery encounter.

Elsewhere, all home hopes for China Squash were extinguished on day one with four defeats from four matches for wildcards Yuning Zhang, Ziyi Liu, Haizhen Li and Penglin Zhou.