Nicol David, arguably the most honoured squash player of all time, found herself on an outside court while starting her bid to regain the World Open title on Tuesday.

David began with a comfortable 11-6, 11-3, 11-2 win over Sharon Wee, her fellow Malaysian, on a conventional plaster court, which means she will have to adapt to the totally different all-glass show court when she plays her second round on Thursday.

It was a weirdly, low-key beginning for a player who in recent months has been awarded two rare and highly-prestigious awards in Malaysia, the Order of Merit and the title of Datuk, as well as becoming Asian sportswoman of the year and being world number one for more than two years consecutively.

"I was just expecting anything when I came to the tournament," David said, when she was questioned about this. "It's men and women together at this tournament so you just have to see.

"It's difficult to start off on the outside courts, but you just have to expect these things to happen. You just have to play your game and not think about it.

"But it would be great to have some of the girls on (the show court) with the guys so people can see both straight away in the first round. It's just a matter of organising times."

David will get a chance to practise on the slower all-glass court with spectators looking in on all four sides instead of just through the back wall, before playing her second round against Rebecca Chiu, the world number 14 from Hong Kong.

Her male counterpart, Amr Shabana, the top-seeded titleholder from Egypt, still looked a little below his best while reaching the third round with a 12-10, 11-7, 11-4 win over Borja Golan, the French international finalist from Spain.

However Shabana is renowned for timing his best form for the later stages, just as he did in last year's final against Gregory Gaultier.

The second-seeded Frenchman was nevertheless ruthless while reaching the last 16 with a 11-6, 11-6, 11-3 win over Shahier Razik, a top 30 player from Canada.

Gaultier's success did just a little to provide French consolation for the surprise second round loss of Thierry Lincou, the sixth-seeded former world champion from Marseille, earlier in the day.

Lincou's hopes of winning back the World Open title had been sensationally dashed in the second round by a 17-year-old world junior champion from Egypt, Mohammed El Shorbagy, who had to come through the qualifying competition and was thought to be too inexperienced to win yet at this level.

Shorbagy's 12-10, 11-6, 7-11, 10-12, 13-11 win was all the more remarkable for happening after he missed a match point in the fourth game and was denied three more in the fifth against the tour's most renowned comeback specialist.

"He played just the kind of game I didn't like, full of attacks which surprised me," admitted the 32-year-old Lincou, the first Frenchman ever to become world champion when he won in 2004 in Doha, but who now failed to make the third round for the first time since 1999.

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