Bermuda’s Micah Franklin has made it through to the second round of the IQUW Squash Open.

Franklin was originally scheduled to play Cory McCartney but after a late player withdrawal he was forced to take on fellow local player Taylor Carrick in the opening round, with McCartney handed a bye.

The battle of Bermuda was won by Franklin in straight sets 11-5, 11-9, 11-5 but despite making progress in the tournament, Bermuda’s national champion was disappointed to have to defeat anoter home-grown player to make it into round two.

“Yesterday morning we had to do a change of draw due to a withdrawal,” Franklin said.

“The Professional Squash Association asked me to fill in that spot for the player who couldn’t make it. I was unable to fill that spot, which meant a bye was given to my original opponent.

“I then had to play Taylor Carrick, which was a real shame to have two Bermudians playing in that first round and not ideal for a lot of reason, but I had to treat the match like any other and I played really well.”

National champion Franklin had some warm words for Carrick after the match and will use his experience to help him overcome this disappointment.

“I feel like Taylor still has a lot of time to bounce back from this and recover,” Franklin said.

“I truly think that he is a bright talent for Bermuda’s squash future and I’m going to train him and help him try to get past this difficult time

“I think he will succeed and I told him after the match that I don’t think it’s a matter of if he will ever beat me, it’s a matter of when. It’s a real shame it urned out that way but I’m happy to again be playing tonight.”

Franklin will next play fourth seed Matias Knudsen, of Colombia, on Tuesday evening.

In other matches played on day one of the five-day tournament, Bermudian Noah Browne took a set off France;s Luszlo Godde, who is ranked 184 in the world, but was ultimately beaten 1-11, 11-7, 5-11, 5-11 and Anaya Smith was beaten 11-5, 11-6, 11-3 by Colombia’s Nicolas Serna.

The women’s tournament begins on Tuesday night with Eilidh Franklin taking on eighth seed Sarahi Lopez from Mexico and Melina Turk competing against No 6 seed Wen Li Lai, of Malaysia.

The top seeds, who were both given byes in the first round, will also take to the courts for the first time, with Spencer Lovejoy, of the United States, taking on England’s Noah Meredith and Ineta Hopton, from Latvia, taking on Margot Prow, who represents Barbados.

Action gets under way at 3pm on Tuesday afternoon.