Qatar’s Abdulla al-Tamimi with his medals after winning the 21st GCC Gulf squash championship in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia yesterday.Right: Qatar players, who finished second in the team event.
By Sports Reporter/Doha
Qatar’s Abdulla al-Tamimi won singles event in the 21st GCC Gulf squash championship in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia yesterday.
Al-Tamimi made history as this is the first time in the last 26 years, that the event was won by a non-Kuwaiti player.
The Qatari’s beat compatriot Syed Azlan 3-0 in the first round, and followed it with quarter-final win over Kuwait’s No 1 seed Abdulla al-Muzayen 3-0 (11-8, 12-10, 11-9). In the semis, al-Tamimi outplayed No 3 seed Youssif Nizar of Kuwait 3-0 (11-3, 12-10, 11-1) before wrapping up the times with a 3-1 win over Kuwait’s Ammar al-Tamimi, the No 2 seed, 3-1 (11-9,11-9, 7-11,11-6) in the title clash.
After being crowned as the new Gulf champion, al-Tamimi expressed his happiness and thanked Aspire for their support as well as Qatar Squash Federation. He is hoping to work hard in 2015 to improve his world ranking.
In the team event, Kuwait finished first with Qatar taking the second place ahead of Saudi Arabia in third and Bahrain in fourth position.
In the final, Kuwait beat Qatar 2-1. Al-Tamimi gave Qatar a good start when he outplayed Ammar al-Tamimi 3-0. But Abdulla al-Muzayen pulled one back for Kuwait when he beat Abdulrahman al-Malki 3-0. In the decisive match, Syed Azlan of Qatar lost in five game to Salem fayez of Kuwait.
It was 11-6 in the fifth game after Azlan was hit by his opponents racket and play was suspended for almost 45 minutes.
