British Open winner Paul Coll arrives in Doha to take part in the Qatar QTerminals Classic
Doha, Qatar: British Open winner Paul Coll, who is looking to pick up his first title in Doha, arrived on Friday in the city to take part in the Qatar QTerminals Classic, PSA World Tour Platinum event, which will be held from October 17 to 23 at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex.
The New Zealander was met on arrival by top officials of the Qatar Squash Federation as well as fans who were at hand to welcome the star player to Doha.
Coll, who finished runners up last year, is among some of the leading squash players who are here in Qatar for the one-week long tournament.
Three-time winner Mohamed ElShorbagy headlines the draw while former World Champion Tarek Momen and younger brother Marwan, Karim Abdel Gawad and Diego Elias are the other players to watch out for.
In August Coll, who is currently ranked third on the PSA Tour computer, defeated some of the top names in the squash world like Ali Farag, Egypt’s Mohamed ElShorbagy to bag his maiden British Open title.
In the final, Coll who won only once in 14 meetings before the title decider against world champion Farag won the four-game decider.
In the semi-final he defeated, Mohamed ElShorbagy, a four-time British Open champion and current world number two, who had beaten Coll nine times in 10 previous encounters.
Coll turned the form book on its head with a masterful display for an 11-8, 11-7, 11-5 victory in 31 minutes to defeat Mohamed ElShorbagy.
The 29-year-old Kiwi could not repeat the British Open success in the US Open and lost to Egypt’s world number 10 Mostafa Asal in a four-game 103-minute encounter.
Coll, having finished runners-up to Ali Farag in the final of the 2020 Qatar Classic, will thus be keen to add to his silverware from Qatar.
Last year, Farag took an early lead and Coll then showed his class to fight back in the second game and level the match, but Farag was able to withstand the pressure from the Kiwi to claim the victory, and become a two-time Qatar Classic champion.
