06 Sep 2018
Shanghai, 6 September 2018. Aspire Academy graduate and Qatar’s No 1 squash player, Abdulla Al Tamimi is through to the second round of the JP Morgan China Open Squash Tournament after cruising to a 3-0 victory over India's Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu on Wednesday 5th September 2018. Al Tamimi who is currently ranked No. 28 in the PSA World ranking was playing his counterpart for the second time in as many weeks after the pair recently clashed at 18th Asian Games in Indonesia and 23-year-old Abdulla al Tamimi triumphed in that match too.
Speaking after the first-round win, the Aspire graduate said, "I just played him in the team events at the Asian games and had played him a few times before, so I just had to keep the pressure on him at the back of the court. It's not the way I love to play but it was the way to beat him, I had to get the ball deep in the corners and when he took my short I tried to attack him from the front. It worked out pretty well in the first two games, I was a bit up and down in the third, but I played the big points a bit better than him and that's what made the difference”
Al Tamimi will meet Nicolas Mueller from Switzerland in the second-round. Looking ahead to that match Al Tamimi said, "Nicolas is a top player for sure, he's been around the top 20 for ages and it's always fun to play him. "I'm looking forward to a fair game with him,” added Al Tamimi. The PSA World Tour Gold tournament has attracted some of the world top players including first seed Simon Rosner of Germany ranked 5th in the World, 2nd seed, Miguel Rodriguez of Colombia (6th in the World) and 3rd seed Gregory Gaultier of France who is currently ranked 7th in the world.