Qatar’s Abdulla al-Tamimi yesterday won the Cape Town Squash Open 2024 title, beating Declan James in the final. Al-Tamimi won 15-13, 11-5, 11-6 (40m).
Victory for al-Tamimi secured him an 11th PSA Squash Tour title and his first outside of Qatar since 2022, and speaking after his win, he revealed how he felt after keeping his composure with the lead.
“I feel relief, to be honest,” al-Tamimi said on court moments after victory. “You have no idea the amount of things going through my head when I have even a one-point lead, imagine four or five.
“I knew Dec gets a lot of balls back. You think he’s far from the ball, but he’s got that reach so it makes you think that you have to take him short again, which I did a lot of the time, but I knew I had to push it deep again then short again.
“That’s what I’ve been working on, to get the guy tired towards the end of the match, to sneak the mistakes from them instead of the other way around,” he added.
It was al-Tamimi’s first career win over James in what was their fifth head-to-head clash.
The No.1 seed from Qatar suffered a cut to the head in his semi-final win over Karim El Hammamy, and sported a small plaster below his trademark headband from the off today.
The crowd inside the sports hall – usually home to the indoor cricket nets – at Western Province Cricket Club were treated to a thrilling opening game, too, as al-Tamimi and James went toe-to-toe over more than 15 minutes of action, with the Qatari player showing no signs of his injury affecting his game.
James had two games balls at 10-8 and another at 13-12, but ultimately fell short of taking the lead, losing the tiebreak 15-13, as the two players showcased somewhat contrasting styles, with the diminutive al-Tamimi attacking the front of the court, while James displayed his usual consistency to the corners.
It was al-Tamimi’s approach that came out in top of game two as well, though, as he reeled off seven points out of 8 to move from 4-4 to 11-5, and he carried that momentum into game three, dragging James around the court with a combination of deft touches and impressive speed.
James kept fighting until the end but al-Tamimi would prove too strong on the day, raising his arms aloft as James failed to reach a forehand drop on match balls.
No.1 seed Melissa Alves won the women’s title by beating Nour Heikal. Alves won 12-10, 11-5, 11-7 (29m). Alves said: “I came here as the No.1 seed so obviously I wanted to win this tournament. That was the goal with my team, with my coaches, we talked about this one, and I’m happy. It doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as you get the win, and I think I played pretty well.”