Qatar’s Abdulla al-Tamimi sent World No. 2 Paul Coll of New Zealand tumbling out of the QTerminals Qatar Classic as defending champion Diego Elias and three-time champion Mohamed ElShorbagy advanced on Monday.
At the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, al-Tamimi produced some scintillating shot-making on his way to a second round 3-2 (9-11, 11-9, 16-14, 9-11, 11-7) win over the New Zealander in 94 minutes. Coll, making his first appearance of the season, nudged himself into the lead before al-Tamimi took a 2-1 advantage. The New Zealander kept his composure to tie the match, but al-Tamimi took the spoils as he came out on top in the final game to set up a third round meeting with George Parker tomorrow.
“I’ve been very close before against the top guys. I always have a lead, I managed to choke it then. I tried not to think about it at all. I was cramping from game three to the fifth in my fingers, I tried not to show it to Paul,” al-Tamimi said. “I was waiting for the opportunity to go for the shots and when it’s there, that’s the way to beat Paul. I can be negative, I had to play my game at the right time and I’m happy with the win.”
Earlier World No. 5 Mohamed ElShorbagy made it five wins out of five against Malaysia’s Eain Yow Ng as he made a winning start to his campaign. ElShorbagy is the most successful man ever at this tournament having won it on three previous occasions, and he made a solid start to his attempts to lift this trophy for the first time since 2017 as he overcame Eain Yow 11-7, 11-8, 4-11, 11-8.
ElShorbagy showed his class in a one-sided first game but a loss of focus from the former champion at the back end of the second game continued into the third, and Eain Yow took full advantage to halve the deficit to just a single game. It was all to play for at 7-7 in the fourth game, but ElShorbagy went up a gear to close out a victory which will see him go up against recent CIB Zed Squash Open winner Youssef Soliman for a place in the quarter-finals. “It’s very tricky to play your first match of the season against someone who knows you very well,” said ElShorbagy.
“He came at me and tried to beat. We haven’t seen each other play in a very long time, this summer he was in the States training with Shaun Moxham and I was in Prague training with Greg (Gaultier). For a game and a half I was dominating, I was 8-3 up in the second and then had a complete loss of focus. When you lose focus for even a few seconds, the whole match can change. Even though I snuck the second game, I had a really bad start in the third and he knows me very well, he knew how to take advantage. The fourth was very close, at 7-7 anything could have happened. I’m really glad to be through, it’s a great match for me.”
Defending champion Diego Elias saw off a stern challenge from Saurav Ghosal in an entertaining affair as the Peruvian No. 4 seed booked his spot in the next round courtesy of a 3-1 win. Elias, known for his languid style, looked relaxed even by his own standards in the first game, with the Peruvian Puma easing his way into the match as he recovered after making a number of errors to move from 7-3 down to an 11-9 winner. Ghosal hit back well in a brilliant second game, with the energetic Indian smothering Elias and eventually converting his sixth game ball to level the tie with a mammoth 17-15 win.
The third game was just as even, with Elias moving back into the lead with an 11-9 win. Ghosal started furiously in the fourth and had opportunities to force a fifth with two game balls at 10-8. Elias, however, was able to save both and won 12-10.

MAIN RESULTS
 Miguel Rodriguez (COL) bt Nicolas
Mueller (SUI) 3-0 (13-11, 12-10, 11-8) (48m)
[5] Mohamed ElShorbagy (ENG) bt Eain Yow Ng (MAS) 3-1 (11-7, 11-8, 4-11, 11-8) (51m)
Victor Crouin (FRA) bt [7] Joel Makin (WAL) 3-1 (11-9, 6-11, 11-9, 11-8) (64m)
[4] Diego Elias (PER) bt Saurav Ghosal (IND) 3-1 (11-9, 15-17, 11-9, 12-10) (70m)
[6] Tarek Momen (EGY) bt Gregoire Marche (FRA) 3-0 (11-8, 11-6, 11-6) (30m)
[3] Mostafa Asal (EGY) bt Raphael Kandra (GER) 3-0 (11-9, 11-3, 11-4) (35m)
Abdulla al-Tamimi (QAT) bt [2] Paul Coll (NZL) 3-2 (9-11, 11-9, 16-14, 9-11, 11-7) (94m)