I must begin with a word of praise for Craig Rowland, who caused the biggest upset of the tournament so far when be beat Egypt's Ahmed Barada, ranked No 7 in the world. This is not just because he is from my country, Australia, but becasue of the mental toughness this player displayed against Barada.

After winning the first game and then losing the next two, it takes tremendous stamina and also grit to hang on in the match. Rowland, ranked No 28 in the world, totally outlayed the Egyptian in the last two games.

That just goes to show that world rankings do not really set apart these players. They are all very good and on their day can beat the best.Of course, the fact remains that Rowland had come through the qualifying rounds having played two matches at the glass-backed courts of the CCI and a had a better feel of the court. But in the professional circuit, what counts ultimately is the result.

Rowland has set up an interesting second round clash with countryman Byron Davis, who beat the Pakistani Zubair Jahan Khan with ease. Byron had beaten Zubair before in Pakistan and with this victory, he has proved a point over the Pakistani. Today, it was good for me to watch my two countrymen and lend my support to them, but I'll have to sit on the fence when the two meet.

I was happy with my opening match on Monday, but since it was my first match outdoors since quite a while, I took a bit of time to fine tune my game. I am up against a very talented Welshman, Alex Gough, in the second round, who recently made his first semi-final in a World Open.

Peter Nicol came through relatively unscathed against a never-say-die Peter Marshall and I can say that Nicol will be totally focussed in this tournament as he is out to defend his title. Coming to the World No 1 Jansher Khan. I must say that his debut in Mumbai wasn't one of his most memorable matches, but at the end of the day he was probably happy to get a win and get the round over with. It's always better to get the cobwebs out earlier on than get entangled in them later on.

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