Qatar’s Abdulla al-Tamimi is back in the winner’s circle for the first time since 2018 after he claimed the victory at the Atlanta Open. The Qatari beat Argentina’s Leandro Romiglio in the final after an 82-minute marathon.
After a bye through to the second round, al-Tamimi, who was the top seed for the Challenger 10 level tournament, started his campaign with a 21-minute victory over Miled Zarazua, in which he dropped just 12 points across the three games.
He then also defeated England’s Mark Broekman, the event’s No.7 seed, in straight games, before a more difficult task came in the semi-finals of the competition, as he came up against No.3 seed Timothy Brownell. The American took the first game, but the Qatari fought back to win 3-1 and advance to the final. In the final, he came up against Romiglio, a man in form after his victory at the Val de Reuil Normandie in March. Al-Tamimi found himself behind for the second day in succession, after losing the third game on a tie-break 12-10. However, the Qatari fought back to win in five, taking the decider on a tie-break 13-11, to claim his first title since winning in Malaysia four years ago.