Taylor Carrick took centre stage on the opening night of the IQUW Squash Open in Bermuda on Tuesday.

With the top eight seeds in the men’s round given a bye into the second round, which starts on Wednesday, all local eyes were on the performance of Carrick, who is the only Bermudian playing full time on the Professional Squash Association Tour.

The young player received a fantastic reception from the local fans as he took to the court to play Veer Chotrani of India, who is ranked 58th in the world, but the vocal support failed to help Carrick bridge the massive gap in world rankings.

The impressive Chotrani took just 24 minutes to end Bermuda representation in the tournament, winning in straight sets 11-5, 11-3, 11-6 to secure a second-round match on Wednesday against fourth seed Leandro Romiglio, from Argentina.

Elsewhere in the men’s draw there was victory for England’s Sam Osborne-Wylde, who beat Alejandro Enriquez, of Guatemala, 11-7, 11-5, 11-5. His reward for victory is a match against teenage sensation Mohamed Zakaria, who is the second-youngest player after squash legend Jahangir Khan to be ranked in the top 20 in the world.

Zakaria’s Egyptian counterpart Moustafa El Sirty battled back from two sets to one down to beat Jorge Gomez Dominguez 11-6 in the deciding set and will play sixth seed Omar Mosaad on Wednesday.

There were also first-round victories for England’s Adrian Waller and Egyptians Yassin El Shafei and Ibrahim El Kabbani. Top seed Miguel Angel Rodriguez, from Colombia, starts his campaign on Wednesday against Malaysian Sanjay Jeeva.

It was a similar story in the women’s draw with the eight seeded players all needing to wait a day before they taste any action.

But there was still plenty of excitement on show with the most thrilling match on day one being won by Whai Yhann Au Yeong, from Singapore, who showed courage after losing a two-set lead to overcome Japan’s Ria Sugimoto 12-10 in the final game.

Margot Prow, winner of the tournament last year, made it safely through to the second round in straight sets as did Norwegian Madeleine Hylland, India’s Joshna Chinappa, English player Asia Harris and Egypt’s Salma El Alfy.

Laura Tovar, from Colombia, and Austrian Jacqueline Peychar were both made to work slightly harder, each dropping a set on their way to victory.

Top seed Aira Azman, from Malaysia, will begin her tournament against Tovar on Wednesday afternoon.