Patient David breezes into the second round

World number one Nicol David was kept waiting more than two hours to get on centre court but once there, the Malaysian top seed breezed into the second round at the Cathay Pacific Sun Hung Kai Financial Hong Kong Open with a comfortable win over Sarah Kippax of England.

The entire opening day schedule at the Hong Kong Squash Centre went haywire due to a few matches taking longer than expected, especially the first encounter on the show court between English qualifier Chris Simpson and Australian Cameron Pilley which the latter won in 82 minutes.

"I knew before arriving at the venue that my match would be played later but I didn't want to run the risk of getting held-up in the Hong Kong traffic and came early anyway. It was a bit frustrating waiting for my match but once it began, I quickly got into my rhythm and everything went smoothly after that," said David.

David, 29, has held the world's top-ranked position since mid-2006. And yesterday she showed glimpses of why that is the case as she steamrollered past Kippax 11-2, 11-5, 11-4 in just 23 minutes.

"I'm happy to have got my first game out of the way. I felt I played really well although Sarah did push me at times," David said.

David will now meet Hong Kong's Joey Chan Ho-ling in the second round. Chan defeated New Zealander Kylie Lindsay 3-1. Another local, wild card entry Liu Tsz-ling had a brief vision of glory when she won her first game but Indian opponent Dipika Pallikal soon restored order.

"I gave too many opportunities for her to attack," said a disappointed Liu after losing 7-11, 11-6, 11-1, 11-5.