14-Jan
OMAR CRUISES TO QATAR VICTORY

Top seed Omar Elborolossy of Egypt outgunned Hisham Ashour in the final of the Ali bin Ali Open, played at the Khalifa Squash Complex.

Elborolossy triumphed 15-11, 15-7, 15-10 in just 30 minutes.

Omar Elborolossy

Alister Walker

Omar Elborolossy
 

15-11, 15-7, 15-10 (30m)
 

Hisham Ashour

11-15, 12-15, 15-12, 15-6, 15-14

Gavin Jones

15-Jan
OMAR CRUISES TO QATAR VICTORY
Top seed Omar Elborolossy of Egypt outgunned Hisham Ashour in the final of the Ali bin Ali Open, being played at the Khalifa Squash Complex. Elborolossy triumphed 15-11, 15-7, 15-10 in just 30 minutes.

14-Jan
OMAR TO FACE QUALIFIER
IN QATAR FINAL

Top seed Omar Elborolossy of Egypt will take on qualifier Hisham Ashour in the final of the Ali bin Ali Open, being played at the Khalifa Squash Complex.

Elborolossy dropped a game in his semi-final game against Alister Walker but triumphed 15-10, 10-15, 15-4, 15-9 in 52 minutes.

Ashour won a see-saw encounter against fellow qualifier Gavin Jones, coming from two games down in 75 minutes to win  11-15, 12-15, 15-12, 15-6, 15-14.

13-Jan
Omar Resists Upsets In Doha
While two qualifiers and the eighth seed forced their way through the quarter-finals of the Ali Bin Ali Squash Open in Qatar, top-seeded Egyptian Omar Elborolossy maintained his composure to become the only expected player to reach the semi-finals of the new PSA Tour event in Doha.

The world No23 from Cairo, however, was made to work hard by his fifth-seeded Pakistani opponent Farrukh Zaman and ultimately prevailed in 77 minutes - the longest match of the day. Elborolossy, 27, will now face English qualifier Alister Walker, who fought back from a game down to defeat third-seeded Spaniard Borja Golan.

Welshman Gavin Jones, the eighth seed, claimed the biggest quarter-final scalp when he beat Englishman Bradley Ball, the No2 seed.. His semi-final opponent will be Egyptian qualifier Hisham Ashour who followed his first round upset over third-seeded compatriot Mohamed Essam Hafiz by beating fellow qualifier Jan Koukal, from the Czech Republic.

12-Jan
SEEDS SAIL THROUGH IN QATAR
TOP seed Omar Elborolossy, Gavin Jones and Bradley Ball were some of the big names who booked their spots in the second round of the Ali bin Ali Star 1 Squash Tournament yesterday.

Jones beat Ali al-Kashooti in the first match on centre in just 28 minutes 3-0 (15-8, 15-10, 15-9) while Ball routed Saud al-Sulaiti 3-0 (15-11, 15-9, 15-5) in 22 minutes.

Elborolossy was stretched a bit by Mika Monto before triumphing in 40 minutes 15-10, 15-9, 15-10.

Farrukh Zaman played the longest match on the first day against Muhammad Ilyas before overcoming his opponent in 78 minutes 11-15, 11-15, 15-12, 17-15, 15-8.

Borja Golan beat Raj Nanda 15-12, 15-7, 15-11 in an hour. Alister Walker defeated Ajaz Azmat 15-13, 15-9, 8-15, 15-13 while Jan Koukal won his match 15-4, 15-3 after rival Amjad Khan retired.

11-Jan
QATAR EVENT ELEVATED TO STAR ONE LEVEL
TOP seed and world No 24 Omar El Borolossy of Egypt will take on Mika Monto of Finland in the Ali bin Ali Star 1 Squash Championship starting at the Khalifa Squash Complex today.
 
The tournament will be the first in the series of events the Qatar Squash Federation (QSF) has chalked out for the year. The QSF has released a calendar of 23 tournaments, including Qatar Classic, Qatar Masters and eight satellite tournaments.
 
Addressing newsmen, QSF President Nabil Ali bin Ali said the Professional Squash Association (PSA) has raised the level of Ali bin Ali tournament to Star 1 from a satellite event.
 
"The total prize money for this event is $10000 and the winner will earn 175 ranking points from this tournament," he pointed out. He said the Star 1 event will be an annual affair. "Apart from this, we would like to raise the level of the fifth satellite event, scheduled too be played from December 13 to Star 1," he added.

He said the federation has decided to hand over wild card to Ali al-Qashoti instead of its top player Saud al-Sulaiti.

"Only one wild card is allowed in the Star 1 event. Al-Sulaiti has a good world ranking but we opted for al-Qashoti because we would like to improve his world ranking as well," he said. Al-Qashoti will meet 61st ranked Gavin Jones of Wales in the first round.

Al-Sulaiti, however, defeated Omar Refaat 15-11, 15-4, 15-12 to earn a berth in the main draw and will clash against second seed Bradley Ball of England.

Apart from al-Sulaiti, Hisham Ashour, Jan Koukal and Alister Walker have qualified for the main draw. Ashour sidelined Bahi Taher 15-10, 15-10, 15-6, Koukal brushed aside Zeyad al-Owaesh 15-6, 15-5, 15-8 and Walker pipped Arshad 15-11, 17-15, 15-5 in the qualifying round.