Al-Tamimi & Eleinen Stun Seeds To Reach Silicon Valley Quarters

Unseeded duo Abdulla Al-Tamimi and Aly Abou Eleinen scored the first two major upsets of the Silicon Valley Open 2024 presented by Oracle NetSuite, overcoming top seed Mazen Hesham and No.3 seed Tarek Momen to reach the quarter-finals of the PSA Squash Tour Gold event in Redwood City, California.

World No.20 Al-Tamimi, who had never defeated Hesham in their four prior meetings on the PSA Tour, came through a see-saw five-game encounter, with the 11-8, 11-9, 3-11, 8-11, 11-4 scoreline setting up a last-eight clash with No.5 seed Joel Makin.

After a lightning-quick start that saw the Qatari race into a two-game lead, Hesham displayed the skillset that has seen him climb as high as world No.5 in the last 12 months, finding his targets and hitting a blitz of winners to draw the match level.

However, it was Al-Tamimi who regained his composure at just the right time, extending the rallies and drawing Hesham into a number of untimely unforced errors in the deciding game, moving from 7-4 to the victory with four quick-fire points.

"It's my first-ever win against Mazen," Al Tamimi said after the match. "He's been playing really well, he's been in the top six in the world for the last three years and I've always struggled to play against him, he's one of the toughest guys on tour to play. He's holding everything and it's hard to read him.

"The longer the rallies went, the more in my favour they went. In the fifth I just tried to keep the rallies longer and just kept moving the ball instead of trying to finish it. It worked in the end from 7-4, I think I got to him physically, and I'm really happy with the win today."

Meanwhile, Eleinen powered past former World Champion Momen in four games, delivering a relentless performance which further highlighted his future potential as one of the stars of the game.

There were two home winners on the second day of action in San Francisco, as Americans Olivia Weaver and Amanda Sobhy both got off to blistering starts at the Squash Zone. US No.1 Weaver needed just 20 minutes to storm past Nadine Shahin, while Sobhy marked her return to competitive action on home soil with a confident win against Tsz-Wing Tong.