MADRID: Former Southern Region Junior Rachael Grinham made history when she faced and then overcame younger sister Natalie, the Commonwealth champion, 9-4, 10-8, 9-2 to win the World Open title for the first time.

Not only was it the first time the Grinhams had met in a world squash tour final, it was almost certainly only the second pair of sisters in any sport - after tennis aces Venus and Serena Williams - ever to have contested a major final.

The only other time the Grinhams had done it, in last year's Commonwealth Games final in Melbourne, it was not part of the professional squash tour.

"The fact that I wanted to win this one so badly, more badly than before, didn't mean it was difficult to play my sister," Rachael said.

It was a delightful contest, full of fascinating patterns, subtle lobs and drops, slow drives and sharply volleyed interceptions - typical of two players who as kids used to sneak onto unlit courts back home in Toowoomba and try to play when they weren't supposed to.

But there was no doubt this final was competitive. Natalie yelled at herself several times, and once hit Rachael on the bottom gently with the edge of her racquet as retribution for winning a rally with three audacious retrieves.

Did Rachael feel sorry for Natalie, having denied her the world title?

"No - she got all three golds at the Commonwealth," she laughed. "We are pleased for the other one when she wins, but we do want to win."

It was still played in great spirit. Natalie once reversed a bad decision by the marker who called down Rachael's brilliant reverse angle at 7-5 in the second game.

In retrospect, that proved the difference between them in that crucial middle game, which fluctuated fascinatingly.

"I didn't think 'I'm going to lose if I don't get this game', but I concentrated very hard on getting back into it," Rachael said.

In the third game she got completely on top when a slide of six consecutive points, five of them errors, came from her younger sister.

But Natalie's ungrudging embrace and smile at the end suggested she shared in the joy of her sister's first world title, at the age of 30.

"To be the first two sisters in the final feels fantastic," Natalie said. "Both being in the final is more of a dream than one of us winning it.

"It was almost perfect. It would have been perfect if I'd have won it."

Report courtesy of Sydney Morning Herald.