RESULTS: METROsquash US Open, Chicago, USA
1st round:
Manuela Manetta (ITA) bt [1] Natalie Grinham (NED) 11-6, 11-9, 11-8
[6] Latasha Khan (USA) bt [Q] Victoria Lust (ENG) 11-4, 11-6, 11-6
[4] Aisling Blake (IRL) bt [Q] Adel Weir-Nunan (RSA) 11-4, 11-1, 11-4
[8] Amanda Sobhy (USA) bt [Q] Alexandra Norman (CAN) 11-5, 11-8, 11-8
[5] Line Hansen (DEN) bt [Q] Leonie Holt (ENG) 11-9, 13-11, 11-4
[3] Isabelle Stoehr (FRA) bt Miranda Ranieri (CAN) 11-5, 11-8, 11-3
[7] Emma Beddoes (ENG) bt Olivia Blatchford (USA) 11-9, 11-9, 11-4
[2] Vanessa Atkinson (NED) bt Orla Noom (NED) 10-12, 11-7, 11-3, 11-9
Italian Manuela Manetta scored the best win of her career when she dismissed top seed Natalie Grinham on the opening day of main draw action in the METROsquash Women's US Open. The straight games upset takes the 27-year-old from Parma to an unexpected place in the quarter-finals of the $36,500 WISPA World Tour squash event in Chicago.
After reaching a career-high No25 world ranking in December 2007, Manetta has endured a barren spell in which her ranking slipped to a current 45.
But the unseeded Italian was in sparkling form in only her second appearance in the main draw of the leading event in the USA - beating former world number two Natalie Grinham, from the Netherlands, 11-6, 11-9, 11-8.
Grinham is on a Tour comeback trail after giving birth to her first child, son Kieran, in May.
"Natalie was not on her best form as her new baby watched from behind the court in sister Rachael's arms," said event spokesman Jim Wellington. "As the score line shows, the play was close, but errors from Grinham combined with a solid, aggressive, and mentally tough performance from Manuela led to an early exit for the world No13."
Manetta will now face Latasha Khan, the sixth seed from the USA who also needed only three games to overcome English qualifier Victoria Lust 11-4, 11-6, 11-6.
Khan will be joined by compatriot Amanda Sobhy in the first time that there have been two US players in the event's last eight for over 17 years.
Sobhy, the 17-year-old world junior champion from New York, defeated Canadian qualifier Alexandra Norman - winner of her maiden Tour title at last week's Southwest Open in Arizona - 11-5, 11-8, 11-8.
Quarter-final line-up:
Manuela Manetta (ITA) v [6] Latasha Khan (USA)
[4] Aisling Blake (IRL) v [8] Amanda Sobhy (USA)
[3] Isabelle Stoehr (FRA) v [5] Line Hansen (DEN)
[2] Vanessa Atkinson (NED) v [7] Emma Beddoes (ENG)