Women’s top seed Aira Zaman made it through to the semi-finals at the expense of her younger sister in the IQUW Bermuda Squash Open on Friday night.

Zaman, who at the age of 23 is three years older than her sibling Aifa, entered the tournament with the highest world ranking in the field and she is now one match away from justifying pre-tournament favouritism.

It was the younger of the Malaysians who made the faster start with Aifa racing through the first game in under ten minutes, winning 11-4. That surprise early success seemed to galvanise Aira, who responded by winning the second game by the same scoreline.

From there the match went only the way of the older sibling, with Aira winning the next two games 11-8, 11-6 to claim family bragging rights in the match, which lasted half an hour.

Zaman will now play second seed Hana Moataz, from Egypt, who came through a titanic tussle with compatriot Amina El Rihany, prevailing 11-9 in the fifth game.

The men’s final will feature a classic mix of youth against experience as 40-year-old veteran Miguel Angel Rodriguez takes on 20-year-old Mohamad Zakaria.

Colombian Rodriguez, the top seed, was pushed hard in the semi-final by Egypt’s Karim El Hammamy with the match lasting more than an hour. Rodriguez lost the first game 8-11 but regained his composure to win the last three games 11-9, 11-8, 11-3.

Egyptian Zakaria won a mammoth five-game match against India’s Veer Chotrani, winning the final game 17-15 in an encounter lasting 73 minutes.