Egypt's Tarek Momen (left) in action against England's Tom Richards during their third round clash, yesterday.
Doha: Egypt’s Tarek Momen brings his best to Doha and yesterday the third seed did the same, thrashing England’s Tom Richards in straight games to storm into the quarter-finals of the Qatar QTerminals Classic.
Before yesterday’s third round clash at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, Richards had secured a game every time he met with the Egyptian in their last six games. But the World No.4, who won the 2019-20 PSA World Championships in the Qatari capital, was not in a mood to drop a single game as he outclassed the Englishman 13-11, 13-11, 11-5 in only 29 minutes.
“I honestly didn’t know what to expect, but I knew Tom is capable of giving me a hard time on court,” Momen said yesterday.
“I can’t say I’m really happy with my performance today, I’m not so pleased with it, but I’m happy I got through in three games. I remember in the last 16 [of the World Championships he won] I almost got knocked out by Abdulla Al Tamimi,” he said.
“It wasn’t a smooth ride to the final, but I felt like we were a bit unlucky with the ball today, we played with the worst ball that was ever made. We both had to deal with it and he managed to adapt a bit better, but towards the end of each game I managed to close it out,” said Momen, who will meet compatriot Mostafa Asal in a mouth-watering quarter-final today.
“I’m expecting a tough one [against Asal]. Two weeks ago, I had the right tactics and I was just a bit unlucky not being able to close it out in the end. I’m hoping to repeat my performance again and I’ll try to get through this time and get the win.”
Asal, who defeated Momen in the US Open final two weeks ago, marched into the last 8 stage after Youssef Soliman retired in the third game due to a hamstring injury.
The match started with a marathon first game that lasted for 33 minutes with Asal taking the advantage with a tie break. Soliman started to struggle more during the match and eventually withdrew in 52nd minute of the match with the US Open champion winning the match 13-11, 11-8, 2-1.
“I’m very disappointed to win like that,” said Asal.
“It happened to me against Ali but it was like 9-5 and the game was going to end. I know the feeling when you can’t compete, and he was struggling from the beginning. He’s my partner at the Al Ahly club and I hope it’s not serious and he will recover very well,” he said.
Also yesterday, British Open champion Paul Coll of New Zealand entered the quarter-final after a 48-minute victory over Frenchman Baptiste Masotti. The second seed did not look at his best but he still managed to take the match with an 11-9, 11-4, 11-9 score-line.
“It’s been a long gap between my last one and this one,” said Coll.
“So it was a bit of a slow start from me. He [Masotti] played very well and he was quite controlled, I think he’s been working on his game and he’s a bit more mature now. All credit to him, but I started a bit slowly, I didn’t quite find my attacks like I wanted to and it’s something I’ll work on for the next round,” the World No.3 added.
Coll will take on World No.15 Mohamed Abouelghar in the quarter-final today.
The Egyptian booked his place in the quarters with an easy win over World No.29 Adrian Waller of England in the third round.
Abouelghar will feature in his first PSA World Tour Platinum quarter-final after the 11-4, 11-3, 11-6 victory.
Yesterday’s Results
Mohamed Abouelghar (EGY) 3-0 Adrian Waller (ENG) 11-4, 11-3, 11-6 (27m)
[7] Mostafa Asal (EGY) bt Youssef Soliman (EGY) 3-0: 13-11, 11-8, 2-1 retired (52m)
[3] Tarek Momen (EGY) 3-0 Tom Richards (ENG) 13-11, 13-11, 11-5 (29m)
[2] Paul Coll (NZL) 3-0 Baptiste Masotti (FRA) 11-9, 11-4, 11-9 (48m)
