Doha: Qatar rising star Abdulla Al Tamimi will face World No. 12 Omar Mosaad in the first round match of the 2014 Qatar PSA World Squash Championship which kicks off at Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex on November 14.
Tamimi is one of Qatar’s home-grown professional squash stars that has had an impressive career so far, despite being only 19 years old and has been handed a wild card for the championship.
An Aspire Academy graduate he is a tireless competitor and has so far taken part in over 40 tournaments locally, regionally and internationally – including the recently concluded 17th Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.
Currently he is ranked an impressive 74th worldwide, in the senior rankings.
His career has begun to take off and earlier this year he won the Outstanding Asian Junior Player of the Year award for a truly stellar performance in 2013.
In 2013, Tamimi skyrocketed to the top of the World Junior Circuit rankings and retained his Dutch Under-19 Open trophy in Amsterdam, as well as claiming the fourth spot at the World Junior Championships in Poland.
Last month, he finished runner-up to Abdullah Al Mezayen of Kuwait, the Asian Games winner in South Korea, at the 26th Arab Championship in Doha.
Mezayen, the only Kuwait to be seeded into the main draw, will face World No. 17 Karim Abdel Gawad of Egypt.
Defending champion Nick Matthew, one of the nine Englishman in the main draw, begins his title defence against a qualifier.
Squash power house Egypt’s challenge will be led by 23-year-old Mohamed Elshorbagy. The World No. 1 is one of the 13 Egyptians in the main draw.
34-year-old Matthew faces a tricky route to the final if he is to defend his title, with potential encounters against four-time World Champion Amr Shabana and Mohamed. Bristol-based Mohamed will go into the tournament as one of the favourites, having recently claimed his fourth consecutive PSA World Tour title at the 2014 Delaware Investments US Open to extend his current unbeaten streak to 18 matches.
Mohamed and Matthew are seeded to meet in the semi-finals when a place in the final will be up for grabs, with either four-time runner-up Gregory Gaultier or two-time champion Ramy Ashour seeded to await them in the decider, and Mohamed is determined to keep up his rich vein of form.
Sixteen places are up for grabs in the qualifying rounds which will begin on November 13.
The Peninsula
