PSA Worlds: Momen survives Tamimi scare

 Doha: Home favourite Abdulla Al Tamimi narrowly missed out on reaching the quarter-finals of the PSA World Championship as he failed to capitalise on the 2-1 lead against No.2 seed Tarek Momen while going down in five games to last year’s world championship runner-up.

Yesterday at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, the World No.47, who beat French duo Gregoire Marche and Mathieu Castagnet in the previous rounds, lost by a whisker, with the final score reading 11-5, 10-12, 9-11, 11-9, 11-4.

Roared on by the home support, Tamimi played some breathtaking squash at times to overturn a one-game deficit, before going 6-3 up in the fourth to put himself within touching distance of a massive upset. But he was unable to capitalise as Momen refocused to draw level, before the Egyptian held his opponent off in the decider to book his spot in the last eight.

“I should have seized the opportunity and finished the match after leading in the fourth,” said Tamimi.

But an unfortunate injury with the score reading at 8-7 in favour of Momen in the fourth game took the game away from the local hero.

“The injury was not so serious, but the momentum of the match was lost and I could not seize on the opening which I had created in the fourth,” added the 24-year-old.

In the fifth and deciding game, Momen brought all his experience into play to take the game away from Tamimi.

He changed gears to play an aggressive game to put pressure on Tamimi and he tasted success as he won the decider 11-4.

“He played some aggressive squash in the fifth and in the end it was the player who played better won the contest,” added Tamimi.

Momen was a relieved man at the end of the thrilling contest.

“I am quite happy, because it was a very tough match,” Momen said.

“Halfway through the fourth game, I knew things were critical because I was 6-3 down. I had no solutions at the time so I had to just really grind it out. I am really happy with the way I fought to come back and win, and I have to recover now, stop thinking about what happened andmove forward and prepare for my match against Diego (Elias).”

Earlier, 36-year-old former World No.1 James Willstrop rolled back the years as he put in a spellbinding performance against the in-form World No.4 Karim Abdel Gawad 11-8, 4-11, 11-9, 12-10 to book his place in the quarter-finals.

“I am absolutely thrilled,” World No.18 Willstrop said afterwards.

“It is hard to say because I am on a rush of adrenaline, particularly in these conditions where it is shootout squash. The intensity is cranked up and you haven’t got any time to settle. The mental intensity of the squash that has been played is heavy, so the adrenaline is high, I didn’t know whether I was capable of doing it,” he added.

The Commonwealth Games gold medallist will play World No.6 Simon Rösner for a place in the semi-finals of the biggest tournament on the men’s tour. The German put in arguably his best performance of the season to take out World No.12 Joel Makin by an 11-8, 11-8, 11-5 margin.

Peru have a player in the quarter-finals of this tournament for the first time as World No.7 Elias came back from

a game down to beat Egypt’s Fares Dessouky 10-12, 11-8, 11-6, 11-4 to set up a quarter-final clash with Momen.

Day 4, Round Three (top) results:

[5] Simon Rosner (Ger) 3-0 [11] Joel Makin (Wal) 11-8, 11-8, 11-5 (47m)

[6] Diego Elias (Per) 3-1 [13] Fares Dessouky (Egy) 10-12, 11-8, 11-6, 11-4 (56m)

James Willstrop (Eng) 3-1 [3] Karim Abdel Gawad (Egy) 11-8, 4-11, 11-9, 12-10 (71m)

[2] Tarek Momen (Egy) 3-2 Abdulla Al Tamimi (Qat) 11-5, 10-12, 9-11, 11-9, 11-4 (76m)

Today’s matches

(4) Paul Coll (NZL) vs (12) Omar Mosaad (EGY)

(14) Zahed Salem (EGY) vs (8) Miguel Rodriguez (COL)

(7) Mohamed Abouelghar (EGY) vs (9) Marwan El Shorbagy (EGY)

(10) Saurav Ghosal (IND) vs (1) Mohamed ElShorbagy (EGY)

Quarter-Finals to be played Tomorrow

(2) Tarek Momen (EGY) vs [6] Diego Elias (PER)

(5) Simon Rösner (GER) vs James Willstrop (ENG)