KUALA LUMPUR, April 25 — World number one and top seed, England’s Lauro Massaro received an early scare before advancing to the second round of the 2016 NAZA PSA Women’s World Squash Championships at the Nicol David Arena, National Squash Centre in Bukit Jalil here today.

The 2013 world champion went down in the first set before stepping up her tempo in the remaining sets to secure a 9-11, 13-11, 11-6 and 11-3 win against Mexican qualifier Samantha Teran in the opener.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, Laura acknowledged that she had to dig deep into her reserves to beat Samantha after losing the first set.

“I thought it would be tough for me to bounce back if I were to go down in the first two set. But I still had huge confidence in myself after leading 10-9 at one time in the second game before picked up the tempo to win,” said the 2016 British National champion.

“Against (world number 14), (Joshna) Chinappa (in the second round) won’t be an easy for me as we have met in a few tournaments before and I must change the style of play if I want to beat her,” the 32-year-old player added.

Earlier, Joshna booked her spot in the second round after whitewashing Laura’s compatriot Victoria Lust 11-8, 11-3 and 11-5 in another first round match.

Meantime, Egyptian players showcased their dominance after three out of four players qualified for the second round which will be played on Wednesday.

Leading the way was world number three, Raneem El Welily who only took 27 minutes to send Tesni Evans of Wales packing; winning in 11-5, 11-2 and 11-6.

World number six, Omneya Abdel Kawy defeated England’s Emily Whitlock 11-5, 11-9 and 11-7 while world number nine Nour El Tayeb edged Hong Kong qualifier, Liu Tsz-Ling;11-6, 11-7 and 11-3.

Eight first round matches will be held tomorrow to decide another four players who will make it to the second round of the US$185,000 (RM743,061) tournament. — Bernama