The favourites in the men’s competition at the Bermuda National Squash championships all came through their first-round matches on Monday night unscathed.

Most people are expecting a repeat of previous finals between Micah Franklin and Noah Browne and they both came through their opening ties in straight sets, with Browne beating Korin Knights and Franklin too good for Ryan Faries.

Taylor Carrick, who is hoping to break Browne and Franklin’s domination, proved too good for Jeffrey Olson 11-5, 11-3, 11-5, while Nick Kyme came through a very tough battle with Jordasche Rawson (11-7, 11-9, 11-9).

There were also wins in the men’s open category for Stephen Smith, Armin de Weerdt, Kristian Muldoon and Anaya Smith.

Rose Paulos got her women’s open campaign off to a fine start when defeating Mary Hall in straight sets and she was joined in the next round by Suzanne Rose, who needed four sets to see off a strong challenge from Somers Stevenson.

One rung down from the men’s open division is the B division, which featured wins for Mark James, Rhys Puddy, Elijah Simmons, Malcolm Woodley, Eli Carpol and Andrew Bonner.

Father and son duo Brian and Owen Rosorea made it through in the C division along with Henrik Knudsen, Brett Murray, Blijah Ball and Mark Zuill.

There are also plenty of age-group categories taking place this week and Bill Dickinson edged out Dan Sullivan in the over-50 division, with Colin Alexander and Tony Riker both victorious among the over-60s