Gregory Gaultier crashed out of the World Squash Championships as he was beaten by England's Adrian Grant.

In long battle that lasted 98 minutes, the 14th-seeded Grant emerged victorious 9-11 12-10 14-12 1-11 13-11, having saved three match balls.

"This is a massive step for me - definitely my best result by far," said the 28-year-old Grant.

Gaultier was dejected at the end.

"I lost my head," he said. "He played better - he's a much better player than me, that's it. Good luck to him."

Thursday's other ties went to form as number three James Willstrop dispatched Italian Davide Bianchetti 11-7 13-11 11-8 while Australian number five David Palmer beat Daryl Selby 11-5 11-13 11-3 12-10.

In the final match of the day, Egypt's seventh seed Karim Darwish came from a game down to beat Alister Walker 9-11 11-8 11-5 11-8.

In the women's tournament, top seed Nicol David of Malaysia cruised past Hong Kong's Rebecca Chiu 11-3 11-8 11-7, but little else was straightforward on the day.

American Natalia Grainger is out, the number four seed losing 11-5 5-11 11-8 6-11 11-8 to New Zealand's Jaclyn Hawkes.

Also sent packing were number eight Laura Lengthorn-Massaro and number six Shelley Kitchen.

Lengthorn-Massaro lost a marathon battle 21-23 19-17 12-14 11-6 11-7 to Omneya Abdel Kawy of Egypt, while Kitchen went down 11-5 11-6 11-2 to Ireland's Madeline Perry.