Tamimi reaches QSF 4 semifinals
Doha: Qatar’s squash ace Abdulla Mohamed alTamimi booked a semifinal meeting against French World No 8 Victor Crouin in the QSF 4 Bronze level event at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha, yesterday.
The 28-year-old Qatari, seeded fifth, defeated Dimitri Steinmann in straight games (11-8, 11-7, 11-1), eliminating the No 4 seeded Swiss in 42 minutes as he maintained his impressive run at the home championship which boasts a substantial prize pool of $50,000.
Crouin, meanwhile, made it to the last four by beating Egypt’s Omar Mosaad 3-0 (11-1, 13-11, 11- 8) in 40 minutes.
Earlier, Egyptian Tarek Momen was made to sweat by his German counterpart, Raphael Kandra in a fiercely contested quarter-final match. Momen secured the victory after 50 minutes with a score of 3-1 (12-14, 11-8, 11-3, 11-6).
Fares Dessouky also secured his spot in the semi-fi nals by defeating Hungarian player Balazs Farkas. Dessouky spent only 36 minutes to wrap up the 3-0 victory with scores of 11-5, 11-8, and 11-9.
Earlier yesterday in the second-round action wasn’t without its scares for the seeded players, though, with Dessouky having to battle from two games down to see off the threat of recent Asian Games gold medallist Abhay Singh.
Singh, 25, looked to be progressing to the last-eight in Doha after taking the opening two games by an 11-8 scoreline before World No 18 Dessouky clicked into gear, securing the final three games 11-8, 11-5, 11-4 to win the match in 59 minutes.
Unseeded Indian Velavan Senthilkumar’s run in Doha was brought to an end by home favourite al-Tamimi, who ran away to victory in four games.
Senthilkumar, who upset Pakistan’s Mohamed Asim Khan in round one, didn’t go down without a fi ght, narrowly losing the first game 11-9, before nicking the second on a tie-break.
However, it was al-Tamimi who ended up taking the honours, winning the final two games to take the match in 41 minutes.
There were no problems for the two top-seeded players of the event, Momen and Crouin, who both eased into the quarter-finals without dropping a game.
Germany’s Kandra progressed past Addeen Idrakie in three games to set up a quarter-final clash with Momen, while No.4 seed Steinmann defeated Bernat Jaume to progress to the last eight and set up a date against al Tamimi - which the Qatari won later yesterday.
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