Bryant Advances To Qatar Semis After Home Hero Tamimi Suffers Suspected Achilles Rupture

Qatari No.1 Abdulla Mohd Al-Tamimi suffered a suspected Achilles rupture to hand England's Jonah Bryant a place in his maiden Platinum semi-final after a dramatic night of action on day five of the QTerminals Qatar Classic in Doha.

The pair were locked in at two games apiece after 70 minutes of high-quality squash when Al-Tamimi went to ground after chasing a ball into the front left corner. A stricken Al-Tamimi had to be carried off court, with the match being awarded to 20-year-old Bryant, who will play training partner and world No.3 Paul Coll for a place in the final.

The Qatari will undergo a scan at a local hospital and everyone at the PSA wishes Al-Tamimi a speedy recovery.

No.2 seed Coll came through an almighty battle with world No.23 Mohamed Abouelghar for the second time this season as he booked his place in the semi-finals of this tournament for the first time since 2021.

Coll, who has failed to make it past the second round in his three previous attempts, had already narrowly avoided defeat to the Egyptian at the London Classic earlier this season, and once again had to dig deep to oust Abouelghar in Doha.

"It was a very physical match on this court, you have to do a lot of deep movements," said Coll.

"It was nice to have a clean battle that was all about the squash. I was annoyed because I had game ball in the third and shanked it into the tin. I think he did that in London, so it was roles reversed this time.

"I'm very happy with the game, I could have been a bit more consistent if I'm being picky, my length dropped off a bit and he's too deadly when that happens."

Eight-time World Champion Nour ElSherbini came back from the brink of defeat as she overturned a two-game deficit to defeat France's Melissa Alves. The French No.1 was the more attacking player in the early stages as she took the game to the former world No.1, going short often and really putting work into the legs of the Egyptian.

ElSherbini so often responds to adversity though, as her 44 PSA titles will attest. At 6-5 down in the third, the 'Warrior Princess' showed her mental resilience and stormed right through, with five successive points seeing her halve the deficit, before the fourth and fifth games soon followed.

"Melissa played amazingly, she was very accurate and attacking better than me in the first two games," said El Sherbini afterwards.

"She was hitting her targets and I was a bit surprised at the beginning. I'm happy to find a way back and to grab the win at the end. I started to relax a little bit and she maybe saw the end a little early as well. I managed to start getting the points back and I took a lot of points quickly in the third, which gave me the push for the end of the match."

Belgium's Tinne Gilis earned her spot in the semi-finals in Doha for the second time and first since 2023 after toppling Egypt's Farida Mohamed 11-2, 11-8, 4-11, 11-6. Gilis will appear in just her third Platinum semi-final and will take on world No.3 Nour ElSherbini in the next round.

The world No.8 lost out to Mohamed on their last meeting in September last year, but held her nerve after conceding the third game to see out the win.

"Even when you're 2/0 up against Farida, you never know what's going to come," said Gilis.

"It's a cold court and she started firing from all over the place. I needed to ask for a new ball [at the end of the third] and I think that made a difference. It's always a clean and fair match against Nour. She's a great player, I've always looked up to her and still do. But I want to win, so I'll give it my all tomorrow and see what happens."