World No.1 Nicol David of Malaysia criticised the British Open organisers' attitudes to the women's game after being made to play her opening match on conventional plaster courts more than a kilometre from the main arena.
David played well enough in an 11-8 12-10 11-8 win over the talented Heba El Torky of Egypt but, on Wednesday, along with all the women, must make radical adjustments to play the second round on an all-glass showcourt where the men have been playing from the beginning.
Arguably the world's highest-profile squash player after topping the rankings for nearly eight years, David has special reasons for speaking out now against discrimination which she appeared to accept without comment last year.
"Now you have a women's world champion," she said, referring to her rival Laura Massaro, who has become the first English woman to hold both the World and British Open titles after succeeding the Malaysian as world champion last month.
"That has to be special. There are also so many English players in the top 10 or top 12 and they are all here - surely you want to display them?" David asked.
"Why not put them all on the glass court? It's the showcase and that's what makes sense."
David's point is that besides gender equality as a principle, there are also commercial reasons to put women's matches on the showcourt, side by side with the men's from the start.
Five women's seeds were beaten on the warmer, bouncier plaster courts - Australian four-time winner and 15th seed Rachael Grinham, Madeline Perry, the No.8 from Ireland, English No.10 Jenny Duncalf, 12-seeded Indian Dipika Pallikal and No.13 Egyptian Nour El Sherbini.
Grinham twice led unseeded Joshana Chinappa but the world No.21 from India held her nerve to win 7-11 11-7 5-11 11-2 11-6 to secure a last-16 berth for the first time.
By far the biggest shock was the defeat of El Sherbini, the 18-year-old prodigy who came within a couple of points of becoming world champion last month in Penang, after beating David in the semi-finals.
Sherbini lost 11-5 7-11 11-6 11-9 to Emma Beddoes, an English player who reached the world's top 20 for the first time only last month at the age of 28.
By contrast, there were no seeding upsets in the men's event, with Ramy Ashour, the titleholder from Egypt, winning his opener 12-10 11-4 11-8 against Marwan El Shorbagy, the former world junior champion from Egypt.
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