23 Nov 2014
Doha, 23 November 2014. Last week’s “World Squash Championship” brought a number of great squash players to Doha. Among them was also Aspire Academy graduate Abdulla Al-Tamimi, who put on a real show against his opening round opponent Omar Mosaad, ranked 12th in the world. Even though the scorecard eventually read 3-1 in favour of Mosaad, the 19-year-old Qatari made his older and more experienced rival fight for each point.
The 68th ranked player, who has been making waves on the junior circuit in recent years, gave enough glimpses of his promise and talent during their 53-minute first-round clash. “It’s very important for Abdulla that he can compete with players at this level and there were some very good passages,” says Geoff Hunt. The Australian, who has won the “World Open” four times as a player and worked as head squash coach at Aspire Academy until December 2013, is still supporting Al-Tamimi. “I’ve been working with him for seven years in total and I want to be there for him at the time when he really starts to make an impact,” explains the 67-year-old Australian, who regularly meets up with Al-Tamimi and accompanies him to a number of tournaments.
“It’s important for squash in Qatar to have promising players like Abdulla, because he puts the sport in the focus of the general public and this also encourages young people to start playing squash. Currently he is ranked among the top 70-players, but as I said he has already made an impact in the Arab region and if he keeps up the good work he will work his way up to the top-20.” What are the goals for next year? “2015 is definitely going to be ab important year for him. Besides focusing on the game itself, we want to improve his physical development while he is on tour by increasing the support of sport science when he is travelling outside of Qatar.”