At first it seemed as if the cream was rising to to the top at the IQUW Bermuda Squash Open on Wednesday.

The eight seeds in the men’s and women’s draws began their campaign on the second afternoon of competition and for much of the day it appeared as if they would all make it through.

But as night fell the upsets started to come with the men’s fourth seed Leandro Romiglio, from Argentina, falling by the wayside after losing in straight sets to Indian Veer Chotrani. That surprise came just minutes before No 6 Omar Mossaad was beaten by fellow Egyptian Moustafa El Sirty.

Top seed Miguel Angel Rodriguez, from Colombia, beat Sanjay Jeeva, of Malaysia, in straight games but most eyes on Wednesday were on Mohamad Zakaria, the wunderkind from Egypt who became the second-youngest player after the legendary Jahangir Khan to make the world’s top 20.

The Egyptian showed glimpses of why he is feted to be a future world No 1 but was forced to work hard before beating Sam Osborne-Wylde 11-8, 14-12, 11-5, with the match lasting more than an hour.

There were also victories on the men’s side of the draw for seeds Simon Herbert, Karim El Hammamy, Tim Brownell and Nick Wall.

Margot Prow, the women’s champion last year, was knocked out in a titanic struggle by fifth seed Nour Heikal. After the lead had switched hands on multiple occasions, it was the Egyptian who prevailed 11-5 in the final game.

Top seed Aira Azman made it safely into the next round as did Australian Alex Haydon, Aifa Azman, Salma El Tayeb, Hana Moataz, Haya Ali and Amina El Rihany.

Play continues on Thursday, with the first matches starting at 2pm.