Hamilton 20-year-old Joelle King caused the boilover when she upset former world No 1 Rachel Grinham in the first round of the main draw in the A1 Homes New Zealand Women’s Squash Open at Mt Maunganui tonight.

Two New Zealanders are through to the quarterfinals after Shelley Kitchen prevailed in four games over Hong Kong’s Annie Au on the glass court at Bayfair Shopping Centre.

The top two seeds Natalie Grainger (USA) and Natalie Grinham (NED) both went through in straight games against kiwi Jaclyn Hawkes and Hong Kong’s Rebecca Chiu respectively.

It was no pushover for all of the seeds though with No 3 seed Rachel Grinham out and eighth seed Isabel  Stoehr (France) beaten by qualifier Line Hansen (DEN).

King, the world number 39, produced a confident performance to down the No 3 seed in straight games 11-9 11-8 11-9 in front of a hearty home crowd.

King played with confidence and hit with excellent depth to keep the super-fast Grinham in the back court. The experienced Australian tried to slow the game down in the third game but King was able to show patience to force her way to a brilliant victory.

She said her game plan worked well.  “I’ve played Rachael before and knew how she played. She has been around the scene for a long time and has a brilliant short game. So I knew if I could keep her behind me and play my game I would come out on top,” King said.

“I played out of my skin today. It’s the biggest win I’ve had so far. She is No 4 in the world. I’ve been having a great time of late and hopefully it carries on.”

King said the support from friends and family was an advantage.

“I had tons of family and people from my club here to support me. It was huge.”

Kitchen, New Zealand’s top ranked player and No 7 seed at the tournament, overcame the illusive left-hander Au 6-11 11-8 12-10 11-5..

Au, ranked 14th in the world, played with deft touch to force the 29 year old kiwi into a running game but Kitchen showed plenty of patience and dominated the final game.

“She has had some good wins on the Tour over the last 18 months. When I saw I had her in the draw I knew I was in for a tough match,” Kitchen said.

“Annie breaks up your momentum. She cuts a lot of balls really short. Not many girls play like that and I don’t get to practice against that sort of player. It’s always a bit of a shock to always be going to the front of the court.

“I am pleased to get through it. I was feeling pretty good at the end. I didn’t want to go in there and play badly. I wanted to play my own game and play well.” Grainger showed little signs of a player who is playing her first tournament in three months with some outstanding touches and good pace against Hawkes.

The New Zealander had her chances, up 8-5 in the second game and 7-4 in the third but could not convert  against the classy top seed.

Earlier qualifier Hansen and world number five Jenny Duncalf (England) had to endure five-games to progress to the quarterfinals.

Hansen overcame world No 11 Isabel Stoehr (France) 11-9 16-14 9-11 5-11 11-6 for the best scalp of her career. She was two games up before Stoehr levelled the match before the Danish player regained her poise to claim the final game comfortably.

“That is the best win of my career and the highest ranked player I have beaten so I am very pleased,” Hansen said. “I tried to stay focussed. I lost heaps of five setters so I tried to stay calm and play one rally at a time and focus on good length and good shots and not what the score was.”

Duncalf came back from two games down against the talented Egyptian Engy Kheirallah who impressed with some outstanding angled winners. The England player settled in the third game and from that point was too quick at the front of the court for Kheirallah in the longest game of the tournament so far, in just under an hour.

“It was pretty difficult in the end. Even though Engy is ranked 22 now she better than that. She is always difficult to play especially when you give her angles,” said Duncalf. “I wasn’t finding any length early or seeing it that great and getting a bit stressed out. I got a lead in the third and managed to relax a bit and started trying to enjoy it a bit more.”

Tomorrow pits King against fifth seed Omneya Abdel Kawy (EGY) a straight games winner today and Kitchen meets Duncalf, while the other quarterfinals sees Grainger against Ireland’s Madeline Perry and Hansen against Natalie Grinham.

All the main seeds progressed to the quarterfinals in the New Zealand Men’s Classic with the New Zealand top seeds Kashif Shuja , Martin Knight and Campbell Grayson all through in straight games.

Play gets underway at 1.30pm tomorrow with both women and men on the glass court at Bayfair.