Micah Franklin admits his historical upset over Nick Taylor on his Legends of Squash debut surpassed his expectations.

The three-times national champion overcame a shaky start to prevail 12-10, 11-9 over Jersey’s Taylor, the top-ranked over-45 player in the world, and become the first Bermudian to win a match in the tournament’s history.

“As I came off court I was speechless, I didn’t expect that,” said Franklin, who is ranked 154 on the Professional Squash Association World Tour.

“I knew it was going to be close, but I didn’t expect to beat him two love. He was impressed and I was happy.

“It’s a big honour and something now stamped in history, that I always have this victory in the book,

“It really feels awesome that I got the support from the crowd that kept me going.”

Franklin trailed by as many as six points in the opening match on Tuesday at the Devonshire courts before completing a comeback to take early control of the best-of-three series.

“It was tight and I was down 8-2 in the first game,” Franklin said. “But I had a couple of rallies where I got some long points into his legs and I slowly started getting in front and getting confident and took the first game.”

Franklin found the going easier in the second game against his heavily favoured opponent.

“The second game I was on top and it was a little more comfortable,” he added. “I was trying to keep the pace high to make him tired.”

Patrick Foster, the Bermuda Squash Racquets Association director of squash, said Franklin’s stunning victory was testament to the significant strides he has made during the past 18 months.

“Micah has toughened up as a professional and it was a hard-fought win,” Foster said. “It was impressive and he earned every point of it.

“There were massive points in the first game and huge rallies where Micah dug deep, hung in and was on the end of the rally. He fought and fought and managed to sneak those big points, and that’s what won it for him.

“Given the way we have watched Micah over the past 18 months, I expected him to perform like that.

“I don’t expect him to win every time. But he’s a tough guy to play, so any of these guys now watching him and lined up to play him over the next couple of days will probably be fairly serious in their preparations.

“This is great for Micah and great for the event, and it was a pleasure to watch. The crowd really got into it.”