England assured of semi-final presence

The World No 4, Linda Charman-Smith, breezed past Malaysia's world junior champion, Nicol David, as she headed a rush of English players into the quarter-finals of the women's World Open in Melbourne.

The Sussex player beat the highly-rated 18-year-old 9-3, 9-2, 9-1 to set up an all-English encounter with Kent's Stephanie Brind, who beat New Zealand's Shelley Kitchen 9-7, 9-2, 10-8.

Three more English players – the 1999 winner Cassie Campion, Fiona Geaves and the veteran Suzanne Horner – also made the last eight.

For Campion the 9-4, 9-2, 9-1 thrashing of Australia's No 8 seed Rachael Grinham was a terrific morale-booster before facing defending champion Carol Owens. Yorkshire-based Campion, who underwent a back operation last November when she should have been defending the title in Edinburgh, continued her comeback from six months of inactivity with an impressive 24-minute victory.

Horner needed four games to come through an all-British clash against Scotland's Pam Nimmo, prevailing by 9-2, 3-9, 9-6, 9-4 in 50 minutes.