Abdullah Mohammed Al Tamimi in action in this file photo.
Qatar’s leading squash player Abdullah Mohammed Al Tamimi will try to improve his last PSA World Championship record when he begins his campaign in the most prestigious and lucrative tournament on the PSA Tour calendar at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex.
Currently ranked No. 46, 24-year-old Tamimi will be looking for a more consistent run while playing before the home crowd. The Championship, in which the world’s top players will be seen in action, will be held from November 8 to 15.
In the 2017 World Championship in London, he lost to Englishman Nick Matthew in the third round and thus will be keen to go beyond the third round.
At the last championship, Tamimi started off by defeating German Simon Rosner in the first round and then overcame Mathieu Castagnet of France but crashed in the third round to Matthew.
Besides Tamimi two of his compatriots – Syed Azlan Amjad and Hamad Al Amri, who have received wildcard entries for the prestigious event, will lead the host nation’s challenge.
Tamimi, who reached a career-high world ranking of 28 in August 2018, will begin his campaign against France’s Gregoire Marche, ranked 16 on the world ranking computer.
Tamimi has a good run in the 2018 season and the high point was winning the $35,000 Malaysian Open and breaking into the all-time career high rank of 28.
But some inconsistent form since then has seen his ranking taking a beating.
In August, he won the gold medal of the Men’s singles event at the West Asian Men’s Squash Tournament held in Iran and is happy with his performance at the US Open held in October, where he beat World No. 26 Leo Au and lost to World No. 3 Tarek Momen, in a thrilling five-game thriller.
“happy with the way i played this USOPEN had a really good win against leo au in 3 straight games and was very close against world number 3 now really looking forward to some hard work till worlds,” he tweeted after the US Open campaign.
Meanwhile, Egyptian and World No.1 Ali Farag has withdrawn from the Championship due to family reasons.
His withdrawal means that World No.3 and last season’s runner-up Momen takes top seeding in the draw and plays Germany’s Raphael Kandra in round one. New Zealand’s Paul Coll, meanwhile, replaces Momen and will play Qatar’s Al Amri.
Colombia’s Miguel Rodriguez takes Coll’s place in the draw and faces Egypt’s Youssef Soliman, with England’s Daryl Selby facing Youssef Ibrahim.
While, France’s Baptiste Masotti now comes into the tournament and will play Egypt’s former World No.3 Omar Mosaad in round one.
Australia’s Ryan Cuskelly has withdrawn from the tournament due to injury and he is replaced by India’s Vikram Malthora, who will now take on England’s Declan James in round one.
The men’s world champion in squash will win $45,600 from a pot of $335,000 in Qatar, according to PSA.
The championship in Doha is featuring a total of 64 players and is being held for a record fifth time in Doha.
