Qatar’s Abdullah Al Tamimi in action in this file photo.
TORONTO: Qatar’s Abdullah Al Tamimi shocked top seed Diego Elias of Peru to advance to the semi-finals of the Canadian Open Squash Open Championship in Toronto on Tuesday.
Seventh-seeded Tamimi defeated the Peruvian star 11-5, 4-11, 11-8, 11-3 in the keenly contested quarter-final clash.
He will face sixth seed Max Lee of Hong Kong. Lee also upset third-seeded Mexican Cesar Salazar in straight games.
The World No. 34 was off to a strong start wrong-footing his rival and not letting him settle early in the match. As a result, he raced to a 1-0 lead.
The Qatari lost some of his momentum in the Game 2 and Elias won it after hitting quality shots.
Tamimi pushed him back in the third in which Elias hit five winners in a rally. But Tamimi somehow sneaked out of the tough points after making Elias work hard and proved too strong to close out the match, winning third and fourth.
“I am very happy with this precious win, which gave me a great boost to continue my remaining tour of the tournament in the same way,” said Tamimi.
“I was not an easy match but I insisted on winning and thank God, I achieved the result I came for.”
“The tournament has not yet been decided, and I still have one game left to play, so I will try my best to show my best performance.”
Khalid al Khulaifi, Chairman of the National Team Committee at the Qatari Tennis, Squash and Badminton Federation congratulated Tamimi for this win.
He stressed that all members of the federation are behind the Qatari player and support him to achieve more achievements that would enhance his professional career and the status of the Qatar sports at the regional and international levels.
