Micah Franklin and Melina Turk won the open divisions in the Gnosis Bermuda National Squash Championships at the Bermuda Squash Association on Friday.

Franklin required 50 minutes to wrap up his fifth Open men’s title after holding off a determined Taylor Carrick to triumph 3-2. Canadian Turk extinguished a late fightback from Eilidh Franklin, last year’s women champion, to win Bermuda’s national title for the first time in her maiden appearance.

The men’s final was a gruelling battle and Franklin, 31, must have thought he had done all the work against the Canada-based Carrick when he won the first two games by identical scores of 11-7, 11-7.

But the 22-year-old Carrick refused to back down and took the next two games 11-3 and 11-5 to force the match into the decisive fifth game, which Franklin won 11-9.

“It feels great,’’ Franklin said on winning the title. “I'm relieved, I feel as though I've left it all out there to try and push to the last rally.

“As I was going two-nil up, I knew that my legs were starting to feel heavy. Taylor changed up the pace, slowed it down, played a completely different game and that rattled me.

“I struggled to deal with that pace. In the fifth game I had to really have a mental talk to myself about what it was going to take to win that fifth game and I'm really proud of myself for pushing that last game. I could have easily checked out and mentally struggled, but I'm really proud that I had to fight through to win.

“It was sheer determination that got me through the urge. My legs were cramping, I was struggling and physically I wasn't feeling it, but squash is about one point at a time and you can always find a way to keep pushing.

“I feel like the squash level in Bermuda is getting better. I don’t know how many of these I can win so I'm so thankful that I got to win this one, who knows, this could be my last.”

The men’s champion is now gearing up for a professional tournament to be hosted by the BSA from April 23 to 27.

“I’ll be playing in the professional tournament coming up in April,’’ Franklin told The Royal Gazette.

“I believe Taylor will be playing in it as well. Hopefully, we can get one more spot for somebody such as Noah Browne or Anaya Smith.

“We are allowed three spots each in the men and women’s divisions, but we might be able to get additional spots depending on rankings.

“Taylor has a world ranking, so he might be able to get in without needing the wild card spot. If that’s the case then we get an extra spot and we’ll get four Bermudians in the draw rather than three.”

While Carrick was pleased with the display he put up in the final, he was also annoyed by the mistakes which he believes cost him his first senior title.

“I'm proud of myself and also just frustrated because the match was definitely there for the taking,” Carrick said.

“I let him go two-nil up, clawed it back but it was all too late and I just made a couple of errors in the fifth game.

“I'm so happy to have taken out Noah in the semi-finals, then definitely pushed Micah to his limits in the final. Hopefully, it’ll go a lot smoothly next year.

“It would mean a lot to win this tournament and this is only the second time that I've played in the senior nationals in the open division.

“I'm hoping that I can completely close the gap with the seniors. By this same time next year, hopefully I can win it.”

In the women’s final, it took Turk 29 minutes to dethrone Franklin. Turk won the first two games 11-3, 11-9, before Franklin took the third 11-7, but the Canadian extinguished hopes of any resurgence by closing out the match 11-3 in the fourth game.

Turk, 32 was delighted with the win as her name will be inscribed on the BSA honours board alongside her father Gene, who won the 1988 Bermuda Open.

“It feels really good to win the title and I'm super excited,’’ Turk said. “I'm also a little bit relieved as that was a really tough final match. I did have a couple of doubts creeping in after she won that third game.

“I was getting a little bit tired but I was doing everything I could to not show that. I didn't want her to see that I was getting tired but I was nervous, she was firing them into the front of the court snd I wasn't sure for how long my legs were going to last.

“I came out in the fourth game and I just tried to pick up the pace as high as possible and try to get it done.

“It’s the first time I played the nationals here and it really feels great. Now that I'm working at this club, the members are really supportive so it’s really nice to play before a crowd.”

Joann Bielby, the losing semi-finalist in the women’s open, defeated Shannon Mann 11-8, 11-3, 11-8 to win the women’s over-40, with the men’s title in the same age division won by John Fletcher.

Nicholas Leach was the winner of the men’s over-50, while 69-year-old Edwin Wickham achieved success in the men’s over 60.