Sabrina Sobhy was just four points from victory and running to retrieve a drop shot when she fell to the ground with a scream.

The top women’s seed at the Starr Bermuda Squash Open was 2-0 up in the best-of-five final against Lucy Turmel and had yet to drop a game in the tournament when she suffered what appeared to be a severe Achilles injury to her right foot.

An in-pain and crying Sobhy was attended to for ten minutes by physios before being helped off court and taken by car to King Edward Memorial Hospital, where she spent most of Saturday night.

The injury will be a bitter blow to the 29-year-old American, who is ranked nineteenth in the world, after she missed most of the 2024-25 season with a serious wrist injury, dropping to 174 in the rankings before making her comeback last September.

Until the Achilles-snapping moment, Sobhy had been in control of the game, finding great angles against Turmel, who made unforced errors early with plenty of her shots dropping low.

It appeared that the vocal Sobhy, who seems to have mastered the art of eye rolling judged by her reaction every time a let or stroke decision went against her, had too much quality for Turmel, who to her credit stayed by her stricken opponent’s side when she went down with the score at 7-7 in the third game.

After she had been awarded victory when it was clear Sobhy could not continue, Turmel was in no mood to celebrate despite picking up her sixth win on the PSA Squash Tour.

“Obviously it’s really sad for Sabrina and she’s clearly in a lot of pain,” Turmel said.

“I know that people are with her, looking after her and hopefully it's not as bad as it looked like it was. She's just come back from a tough injury so luck has not been on her side and I would never want to win a tournament this way. Obviously she was 2-0 up and had been the better player.”

This was Turmel’s first visit to Bermuda and she is already keen to return and defend her title next year.

“Everyone has been very friendly and helpful,” Turmel said.

“My dad’s here with me, so it’s been a bit like a holiday and we’ve been pretty lucky with the weather and got to see a little bit of the island, so I'll definitely be back.

“It’s been a really high level of squash and my goal was to try to play four matches, get all the way through to the final and then see what happens. On paper, obviously I’ve exceeded expectations and it’s been really good to get those four hard matches in.”

While the men’s final started in a subdued atmosphere after the injury to Sobhy, the roof nearly came off the Bermuda Squash Racquets Association Centre when Colombian Miguel Rodriguez won the final point of a pulsating five-game match against Kareem El Torkey.

Rodriguez is a firm fan favourite in Bermuda after playing every year since the tournament’s inception and, at the age of 40, he was giving up nearly two decades in age to his 21-year-old Egyptian opponent.

But this old dog knows plenty of tricks and has a heart to match, coming from 2-1 down to win 11-7 in the final game and send the crowd into raptures. After his success, Rodriguez said he evoked some of sport’s biggest superstars to find the fortitude to prevail.

“I love sports and I love watching Novak Djokovic, Lewis Hamilton and Cristiano Ronaldo,” he said.

“The last two are over 40, so if they’ve done it, why can’t I?

“I have such a great foundation as I was picking up a racket when I was 3 years old because my dad was national champion in Colombia, so this sport is in my blood and running through my veins, it’s my life.

“I love what I do and I'm enjoying it more than ever. I don’t think about my age, I’m just thinking about how I feel and I think I’m playing better now than five years ago because I’m more experienced and I know the behaviours and the body language of my opponents.

“I’m very aware of the things that I have to do, you know, with my nutrition, my fitness and my recovery. This is not a sacrifice for me. I love my routines every day.”

Rodriguez is now a regular to these shores and any tattoo parlours willing to open on a Sunday might just get the business of one of the world’s best squash players.

“I feel like this is my second home,” Rodriguez said.

“I’m sure I'm going to do a tattoo here on my leg, a little Bermuda island and the figure 40, something special because nobody wins this kind of tournament at the age of 40.

“I played really well, very solid and I didn’t lose a game until the final.”