Contributed by Joyce Poon

Kallang Squash Centre, Thursday, August 6, 2009 – There will be a Grinham in the final of the CIMB Singapore Women's Squash Masters. But will it be World no 3 Natalie Grinham or her elder sister Rachael, who's ranked just one place below her?

When the capacity crowd turned up at the Kallang Squash Centre this evening, they could not have suspected they'd still be glued to their seats more than four hours later.

First up was Natalie Grinham vs Madeline Perry, and the hour-long match set the scene for the rest of the evening. The pair traded sets before taking the match into the decider. And in the fifth game, there was never any more than two points between the two before Perry had a late lapse of concentration to allow Natalie to go ahead.

The game ended on a stroke to Natalie and despite initially thinking it was a harsh decision, Perry conceded later that it was a fair call.

The Irish girl felt she had her chances to win: "I really felt I could win. We were at 8-all in the final game and then I played a weak volley boast there and just dropped off for a couple of points and gave her the match point. Still on match ball, I felt I could win, but I couldn't quite do it."

As for Natalie, it was a different kind of struggle: "I played well in some points, other points I felt I was mistiming the ball. I played on the back courts yesterday, and the show court's a little bit different. So my timing was a little bit off sometimes. It was a patchy match, and I'm happy to get through it."

Rachael's match against Egyptian enigma Omneya Abdel Kawy was more straightforward. Except for a second game blip, the 32-year-old from Toowoomba, Australia, was always ahead despite playing with a sore ankle.

She explained how the injury happened: "The night before I had my first round, I just went over on my ankle, crossing the street unbelievably. And I've already done my ankle a couple of times this year, so it's already quite weak. So I wasn't really sure I was going to be able to move alright."

And she was wary of her Egyptian opponent: "I thought tonight against Omneya, I was really going to struggle because she's usually quite good in the front. So I went out there with a plan to just try and keep her in the back so that I probably wouldn't have to move much and hopefully she make some errors."

"Omneya is so good with the racket. People don't think she's would be very fast but she moves very quickly and her reach is so good and she only needs to get the end of her racket on the ball and she can flick it any way. So it's really hard to get the ball out of her reach," Rachael added.

As for playing her sister: "Natalie and I don't play each other that much these days, because we're both struggling a bit to make it through the rounds. It's always good because we always know that one of us is getting through to the final. "

"It's good and bad playing Natalie because you can get on the court and be relaxed and play without worries because you're not going to get upset if you lose. But sometimes it's not so good because you're not pushing as hard as you should. We both need some points at this stage to stay in the Top 4," she summed up.

Natalie echoes the thoughts: "We know each other's games so well, so mentally it's very tough to play Rachael. But if you have to lose to someone, then you want to lose to your sister."

Both sisters have taken turns to lose to World no 1 Nicol David in the past two finals — Rachael last year and Natalie, the year before. And this year, one of them will get another shot at stopping the world-beater from Malaysia.

Quarter-final 3 between world No 5 Jenny Duncalf and Alison Waters (6th) was nip and tuck all the way. But it was Waters who prevailed in the 80-minute tussle to set up a second meeting in a week with Nicol, who beat her in the CIMB Malaysia Open final last Saturday.

For Duncalf, it was disappointing to be edged out; "There wasn't a lot in it, Alison nicked it in the end. I'm disappointed to lose but I didn't think I played too badly. Probably should have capitalised on my lead in the fifth, but Ali came back strong and took it in the end.

The crowd stayed to see World No 1 Nicol David in action and for a while there, it seemed they were going to witness an upset. World No 9 Laura Lengthorn-Massaro played like the rising star she has been for the past two years, running Nicol close before losing the first 12-10.

Laura then won the second 11-7 but that was when Nicol found the extra gear that she often does, taking the third 11-7. Nicol shot to a 6-0 lead in the 4th and despite a mini-comeback from Laura, the Malaysia stayed focused to wrap up the match in 61 minutes.

Laura took heart from her defeat: "I thought I played ok. My game plan was good but it was the execution that let me down. I was confident because the last we met was 3-2, so I know that I can get games, it's just turning the games into wins , so next time, I learnt a lot from this."

As for Nicol, she's one win away from another final, but she got a timely reminder that her opponents are hard on her heels.

"I was not having the best focus today but Laura played really well today and worked the court well, I got sucked into her game but then I managed to find my own game and bring it to her at the end."

As for meeting Waters, Nicol will be wary: "I'm going to just bring what I did in Malaysia to tomorrow's game. I've got to the semis, so that's a big bonus already. I have to keep to my game plan, probably what I did in Malaysia or even better."

The US$53,500 tournament carries a WISPA Gold Tier rating and admission to the event is FREE.