ANTWERP (Belgium), Dec 8: Australian David Palmer shrugged aside off-court politics to win his first-round match at the World Open squash tournament on Saturday.

The world number three eased past Canada’s Shahier Razik 15-7 15-4 15-12 to book a second-round tie with former British Open champion David Evans.

Palmer has been ousted as president of the Professional Squash Association, the players’ governing body.

The removal follows a fiery incident at the Qatar Classic last month when the Australian managed, against the rules, to get a change of referee after he had been penalised for blocking his opponent at a critical point.

On Friday, the opening day of the World Open, the World Squash Federation announced a crackdown on unacceptable player behaviour, issuing a get tough directive to referees.

After his ousting Palmer said on Saturday: “It was obviously disappointing to find out only today what was happening (with the presidency).

“But it means I can focus on my squash without worrying about all the other stuff which is going on in the game.”

He said of his World Open prospects: “I feel I have as good a chance as anyone of winning the tournament.

“Jonathon Power (the former champion) has won four tournaments this year, Peter Nicol (the defending champion) has won four, and I have won a couple.

“But in the last couple of tournaments everything has been going well for me.”

Nicol, the Briton, won his opening match on Friday and plays Davide Sanguinetti of Italy on Sunday.

Power, the Canadian, began his bid to dethrone Nicol with a straight games victory over Pakistan’s Farrukh Zaman, the 20-year-old cousin of former world number one Qamar Zaman.—Reuters