Just when everybody thought he had nothing left to give, the great Peter Nicol proved on his 33rd birthday last night that he is still very much a contender for the Bermuda Masters title.

Coming from two games to love down for only the third time ever in his sparkling 15-year career to beat Egypt's Karim Darwish 11-8 in the fifth at BHS, the English left-hander displayed all the guts and determination one has come to expect from such a legend of the game.

The victory means that he now faces a rematch with Bermuda resident David Palmer tonight - who he beat in the Commonwealth Games final in Melbourne last month - after the Australian defeated compatriot Cameron Pilley comfortably 11-9, 12-10, 11-6 in the first match of the evening session.

To come to Bermuda and perform after the physical and emotional high of winning two Gold medals at the Commonwealth Games last month was always going to be a huge ask for Nicol.

But even after a wretched start to his encounter with Darwish, where he looked loose and lethargic for most of the first two games, that competitive spirit, that stubborn refusal to give in no matter what the odds, was quick to surface in the third.

He was an unstoppable force after that - although Darwish bizarrely took his foot off the pedal having secured the early advantage and was never able to wrest the initiative back. The final score read 2-11, 11-13, 11-5, 11-2, 11-8.

Afterwards, a typically honest Nicol was critical of his opponent's lack of intensity when he had victory within his grasp - a rebuke which few of those watching would have been prepared to question.

“I was really surprised by that I have to be honest,” he said.

“He just capitulated, which is something I would never, ever do. I always keep trying no matter what position I'm in. All he needed to do was put in a little burst in the third and he would have had me, but he sat back and let me back into the game.

“And once I had fought my way back to 2-2, there was absolutely no way that I was going to let it slip from there.

“I had a slow start mainly because I wasn't enjoying it at all. I didn't feel up for it and I really did not want to be out there playing.

“But then (world number nine) Nick Matthew came and spoke to me in between games and settled me down a little bit by cracking a couple of jokes and making me relax. After that I started to get into it, but I really was surprised by Darwish's reaction. He just fell away.”

Palmer, meanwhile, was certainly not at his ruthless best throughout his match with Pilley, making sloppy errors on big points and generally looking somewhat distracted.

He was not helped either by the fact that he was playing a good friend and a fellow countryman or by the frequent interruptions to mop down the court.

But he will have to be a lot sharper tonight against Nicol if he is to keep his hopes alive of winning a first major title on ‘local' soil.