The first two matches were women's 'qualifying' in which Switzerland's Cindy Merlo and Czech Zuzana Kubanova rounded out the women's last sixteen.

Eight men's matches followed, with all but one of the 9/16 seeds progressing to the men's second round, where they would face seeded opponents who were enjoying a restful morning.

The exception was Hungary's Balázs Farkas who, in the longest match of the day, overame Czech Ondrej Uherka in a tough five game battle lasting 80 minutes.

In men's round two all of the afternoon winners fell as the top eight seeds made it through to the quarter-finals. The morning effort told on Farkas, who kept Swiss birthday boy Nicolas Mueller on court for just 15 minutes - the shortest match of the day!

The closest to an upset came when Portugal's Rui Suarez led Raphael Kandra two games to one, but the newly-married German recovered to take the next two games to claim his place in the last eight.

The top four women's seeds also won through to the quarters, but there were some lower seeding upsets as England's Elise Lazarus and Germany's Sina Kandra - newly married to Raphael - produced upsets.

Lazarus was the last player to enter the draw, coming in as a replacement for Emily Whitlock just days ago, and was the first player to reach the quarter-finals as she overcame Latvia's Ineta Mackevica in four games.

"I got a call four days ago from David Campion [England coach] and I was so excited to be in I gave my mum a big hug!" said Lazarus.

"I played good squash for the first two games, but then lost a bit of focus as her game improved. I was down in the fourth too, but managed to get my game back and take that one.

"It's amazing to be in the quarters, and hopefully I've got a few years left playing this tournament. There's no pressure on me tomorrow playing Camille, I'll just give it my best shot."

Kandra survived a tough five setter to beat Czech Anna Serme - she was a game behind twice, was 3-7 down in the fifth, and saved two match balls before finally taking the decider 13-11.

"I've had a lot of time off and some holidays recently with the wedding," admitted Kandra. "So I was a bit up and down, I was just hanging in really and a bit lucky to win in athe end after Anna made two errors on her match balls.

"I was so happy to win in the end though, and I'm looking forward to playing Millie tomorrow."

The quarter-finals, with French top seeds Gregory Gaultier and Camille Serme going for their tenth and sixth EIC titles, are all on the glass court, starting at 13.00.

EIC 2017 - Women's Round TWO

Camille Serme (Fra) 3-0 Zuzana Kubanova (Cze) 11/3, 12/10, 11/0 (20m)

Lazarus (Eng) 3-1 [5/8] Ineta Mackevica (Lat) 11/9, 11/6, 4/11, 11/8 (35m)

[5/8] Tinne Gilis (Bel) 3-0 Cristina Gomez (Esp 11/5, 11/8, 13/11 (43m)

Nele Gilis (Bel) 3-0 Elise Romba (Fra) 11/9, 11/5, 11/8 (30m)

Coline Aumard (Fra) 3-0 Marija Shpakova (Sui) 11/4, 11/1, 11/3 (17m)

Lucy Turmel (Eng) 3-0 Nadia Pfister (Sui) 11/5, 11/5, 11/2 (22m)

Kandra (Ger) 3-2 [5/8] Anna Serme (Cze) 9/11, 11/8, 6/11, 11/9, 13/11 (46m)

Millie Tomlinson (Eng) 3-0 Cindy Merlo (Sui) 11/7, 11/6, 11/4 (22m)

EIC 2017 - Men's Round TWO

Gregory Gaultier (Fra) 3-0 [9/16] Charlie Lee (Eng) 11/6, 11/3, 11/2 (30m)

Josh Masters (Eng) 3-1 [9/16] Dimitri Steinmann (Sui) 11/6, 5/11, 11/5, 11/7 (36m)

[5/8] Raphael Kandra (Ger) 3-2 [9/16] Rui Soares (Por) 11/9, 7/11, 9/11, 11/3, 11/5 (51m)

Nicolas Mueller (Sui) 3-0 Balázs Farkas (Hun) 11/5, 11/4, 11/4 (15m)

Borja Golan (Esp) 3-0 [9/16] Yuri Farneti (Ita) 11/3, 11/9, 11/7 (27m)

Declan James (Eng) 3-0 [9/16] Aqeel Rehman (Aut) 11/7, 12/10, 11/4 (39m)

Lucas Serme (Fra) 3-0 [9/16] Patrick Rooney (Eng) 11/5, 11/5, 11/8 (32m)

James Willstrop (Eng) 3-2 [9/16] Sébastien Bonmalais (Fra) 11/8, 11/5, 11/8 (32m)

EIC 2017 - Women's Round ONE

Merlo (Sui) 3-0 Sanne Veldkamp (Ned) 11/2, 11/9, 11/3 (18m)

Kubanova (Cze) 3-0 Jacqueline Peychar (Aus) 11/9, 11/7, 11/6 (22m)

EIC 2017 - Men's Round ONE

Charlie Lee (Eng) 3-0 Ludovico Cipolletta (Ita) 11/2, 11/2, 11/6 (21m)

Dimitri Steinmann (Sui) w/o Rozle Langus (Slo) walkover

Rui Soares (Por) 3-0 Adam Pelczynski (Pol) 11/2, 11/7, 11/7 (28m)

Balázs Farkas (Hun) 3-2 [9/16] Ondrej Uherka (Cze) 11/7, 9/11, 15/13, 3/11, 11/8 (80m)

Yuri Farneti (Ita) 3-0 Victor Byrtus (Cze) 11/8, 11/8, 11/4 (32m)

[9/16] Aqeel Rehman (Aut) 3-0 Lukasz Stachowski 11/8, 11/4, 11/6 (24m)

Patrick Rooney (Eng) 3-0 Žan Bombek (Slo) 11/2, 11/1, 11/2 (18m)

[9/16] Sébastien Bonmalais (Fra) 3-0 Dimitiri Diamadopoulos (Ita) 12/10, 11/7, 11/7 (26m)

Full coverage (and lots more photos) : www.eicsquash2017.com