Coll overcomes Abouelghar challenge; Al Tamini retires hurt

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October 2, 2025
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2-October-2025

Coll overcomes Abouelghar challenge; Al Tamini retires hurt

Doha: No.2 seed Paul Coll of New Zealand 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 QTerminals Qatar Classic 2025 for the first time since 2021, while local favourite Abdullah Al Tamimi was forced to retire due to injury after being level against Jonah Bryant.

Coll, who has failed to make it past the second round in his three previous attempts, has already narrowly avoided defeat to the Egyptian at the London Classic earlier this month, and he once again had to dig in to oust Abouelghar at the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex on Thursday.

Abouelghar, bidding to reach his first major semi-final in over six years, played some tremendous squash throughout as his clinical attacks to the front of the court saw him outplay the Kiwi.

However, in the third game, Abouelghar strained his achilles when stretching for the ball and, while he was able to take the game to go 2-1 up, he was inhibited for the rest of the match.

Abouelghar’s impressive racket skills still made Coll have to work for the win but despite the best efforts of the physio at the end of the third and fourth games, he was unable to fully recover as Coll closed out the win.


Coll will play either Englishman Jonah Bryant or home favourite Abdulla Mohd Al Tamimi for a place in the title decider.

“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.”

It was unfortunate for Al Tamimi as he had to pull out after he posed a challenge to Englishman Jonas Bryant winning the first and fourth games. The tie was locked 11-6, 7-11, 10-12, 11-9 and 7-6 for Al Tamimi when he was forced to retire due to injury.

El Sherbini comes

back from brink

In the women’s section, eight-time world Champion Nour El Sherbini came back from the brink of defeat as she overturned a two-game deficit to defeat France’s Melissa Alves.

The World No.20 hadn’t beaten El Sherbini in any of their four previous matches on the PSA Squash Tour, but she came out firing today in Doha. Alves 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.

At 6-5 down in the third, the ‘Warrior Princess’ showed her mental resilience and stormed right through, with five successive points seeing her half the deficit.

From that point onwards, Alves was on the back foot as El Sherbini turned the tables. The fourth game followed, with the Egyptian dropping just four points, and she ran away with things in the decider, with Alves serving out at 6-4 down to compound her misery.


“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.”

Gilis halts Farida

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.1 Nour El Sherbini in the next round.

The World No.8 lost out to Mohamed on their last meeting in September of last year, but held her nerve after conceding the third game to win 11-2, 11-8, 4-11, 11-6.

“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. I’ve always looked up to her. But I want to win, so I’ll give it my all tomorrow and see what happens.”