THE Grinham sisters' exit paves the way for Nicol David to regain the British Open women's crown in Liverpool after avenging her World Open defeat to Shelley Kitchen on Saturday.

Men's National No 2 Azlan Iskandar, however, saw his run ended by Thierry Lincou of France 11-8, 11-7, 11-8 in the last eight.

Nicol dug herself out of trouble to earn a notable revenge over New Zealand's World No 6 Shelley for a place in the semi-finals.

The World No 1 was a game and 4-7 down but recovered to win 7-9, 9-7, 9-5, 9-2 as Nicol did a better job of dealing with the pressure which the hard-hitting six-foot two-inch Kiwi applied.

"I had to get my bearings," Nicol told AFP, referring to the need to adapt from the first match, which was played on a conventional plaster court for the first round, to a cooler, slower glass show-court.
"I had to get things going, and I told myself not to let her in before I got my rhythm and gained momentum."

Nicol just about did that, but there were some worrying moments as Shelley made progress with fierce low driving and hard-to-read fast boasts which hurtled off the sidewalls with sudden wrong-footing change of direction.

At times the favourite was not as accurate as she would have liked and did not look all that comfortable, but crucially she made a good low kill to reach 5-7 and a superb backhand drop to reach 8-7.

These were her really first good winning shots and they signalled that Nicol was getting used to the court.

They coincided with Shelley beginning to feel the pace of two long first games.

"I think that gave me more time on the ball, and it helped me take the momentum," Nicol, 25, said.

When that happened, Nicol made steady progress in the third game, taking four points in a row to reach 6-4 and then winning the last four points in one service sequence as Shelley's error ratio began to rise.

After finishing that game with another winning drop shot and a generally more accurate game, she raced away with the fourth game, reaching 7-0 before Shelley could score.

"I'm really pleased to win that," said Nicol. "She's been giving everyone a hard time and it wasn't at all easy."

Nicol was playing Natalie Grainger in the last four late yesterday after the American beat Laura Lengthorn-Massaro of England 9-3, 10-9, 9-6.

The winner is bound to play a surprise finalist because both Rachael Grinham, the defending champion, and her younger sister Natalie Grinham, the Commonwealth champion, were beaten in the bottom half.

Rachael, looking quite unlike the player who also won the World Open seven months ago, was beaten 9-5, 1-9, 9-7, 9-1 by fifth seed Jenny Duncalf of England, while Natalie retired with a thigh injury at one game all against France's Isabelle Stoehr.