Australia's Cameron Pilley will take on New Zealand training partner Paul Coll in Sunday's final of the Australian Open squash tournament in Melbourne.
Pilley beat fellow Australian Ryan Cuskelly in a tight five-game semi-final on Saturday 11-8 9-11 11-4 6-11 11-8.
"He beat me in the nationals in December and I knew, if he played that well again today, he'd beat me again," Pilley said.
"I had to limit his options. There were patches where I restricted him to nothing, and other times he was too good for me."
An Australian has not won an Open title since Stewart Boswell's victory in 2009, but Pilley is looking forward to the challenge.
"It would be pretty special with the return of the Australian Open to have an Australian win it," Pilley said.
"I went pretty close before, losing the fifth set to Stewart Boswell 11-9 so, hopefully, tomorrow will be different.
"It will be a little weird playing Paul, given we train together so much."
Coll came into the Australian Open unseeded, but claimed several big scalps on his way to the final, including the fourth, fifth and seventh seeds.
He beat Pakistan fifth seed Nasir Iqbal 7-11 11-3 9-11 11-5 11-6 and credited much of his improvement in form to training in The Netherlands with Pilley.
"Words can't describe how happy I am now," he said.
"I didn't even think I could do it. I've had to change my flight home because I'm supposed to be leaving in an hour from now.
"I train a lot with Pilley, but I wouldn't say I know his game because he's pretty tricky. And I played Ryan last week - I just know it's going to be tough."
Rachael Grinham's fairytale of a second Australian Open title 10 years after her first was snuffed out in four games by Hong Kong's Annie Au.
38-year-old Grinham won the opening game, but Au took control to take the next three and move into Sunday's final.
She'll come up against former world No.4 Joelle King, who has played better as the tournament progresses.
The New Zealander is playing in just her second tournament since a serious achilles injury.
On Saturday, she beat Malaysia's Delia Arnold 14-12 11-2 11-7 to book her finals spot.
"Coming back from injury, it was a big hill to climb, so now I feel like everything else is a bonus," she said.
I'm really enjoying myself on court which I guess, sometimes when you do something for a living, you put too much pressure on yourself."
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