Men’s top seed Kareem El Torkey survived a huge scare to get through to the semi-finals at the Starr Bermuda Open on Thursday.

El Torkey was taken all the way by Rui Soares, from Portugal, in a roller-coaster match, eventually prevailing 11-5, 7-11, 11-4, 9-11, 11-2.

The Egyptian may well have been expecting to face Timothy Brownell, the fourth seed, in the semi-final but he was beaten by his US team-mate Nick Spizzirri, who seems to have developed the great habit of coming out on top in epic struggles.

After playing five-game thrillers in his opening two matches, Spizzirri did the same again and this time in even braver fashion, coming from two games down to win 7-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-8.

Colombia’s Miguel Rodriguez, the men’s second seed, looks in ominous form and easily beat Salman Khalil, of Egypt, 11-4, 11-5, 11-5. He will face the winner of the game between third seed Yahya Elnawasany and Leandro Romiglio, conqueror of Bermuda’s Taylor Carrick in the opening round

The women’s tournament has gone according to plan with the semi-finals set to be contested by the top four seeds.

Sabrina Sobhy, Lucy Turmel, Nadine Shahin and Haya Ali all made relatively light work of their quarter-final opponents, which means that the matches between the final four tonight could well prove to be crackers.

Sobhy, the top seed, conceded just eight points in her easy success over Menna Hamed and will have to work her way past another Egyptian player if she is to make the final.

Lying in wait for Sobhy is third seed Shahin, who stopped the run of the unheralded Nea Romero when winning 11-5, 11-9, 11-4.

In the bottom half of the draw, second seed Turmel ended the hopes of the final competitor from the Caribbean, Margot Prow, who gave it her all but had no answer the talented Englishwoman.

Turmel will play fourth seed Haya Ali, who was the only one of the top four seeds to drop a game in the quarter-finals. Ali lost the second game to Ukrainian Alina Bushma but recovered to 12-10, 11-8 in games three and four